My update on "Zwarte Piet" (Black Pete), Santa's blackface little helper in the Netherlands, and how's he's fading away - to be replaced by the more acceptable "Sooty Pete".
In this month's @forteantimes.bsky.social - FT470, May 2026 issue.

Exclusive: Reform UK Asked Rival Party Councillor To Be 'Paper Candidate' In Local Election Is Nigel Farage's outfit struggling to get people to stand?

Reform UK asked a random member of the public to stand as a councillor for Bromley, unaware that he is already a Lib Dem councillor on that council.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/exclus...

The Undercover Policing Inquiry has announced its provisional schedule for "Tranche 3 (Phase 3)" - hearing evidence from the managers of undercover officers. Starts 15 June, ends 5August. www.ucpi.org.uk/2026/04/08/p...

Artemis II astronauts bound for moon after rocketing away on NASA's first lunar voyage in decades Four astronauts have embarked on a high-stakes flight around the moon, humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century.

Artemis II astronauts are on their way to a fly-by of the moon 🌒 apnews.com/article/nasa...

Steeple Bumpstead!

Rare video: watch a meteorite hit the Moon in real time 🌕☄️

Reminds me of early internet adopters Therapist.com and Pen 🖊️ Island.

Pizza company mortified over 'worst name ever' after website blunder A pizza company has been left mortified after an unfortunate blunder with the name of their website caused people to read their company's name in a very different way

Well, 💩

New local pizza place has a radically different ordering system: you call
them, order a pizza, and then they bring it to you.

No app, no subcontractors, just a teen who smells vaguely of weed bringing you a pizza.

Innovative!

"The oil crisis is exactly what the net zero brigade wants"

These people have a funny way of saying "Environmentalists have been proved right yet again."

Remains of d'Artagnan may have been found in Maastricht - DutchNews.nl Archeologists may have discovered the skeletal remains of Charles de Batz de Castelmore, otherwise known as the fourth musketeer d’Artagnan, at a church near Maastricht. D’Artagnan, the leader of King...

Skeleton thought to be Charles de Batz de Castelmore D’Artagnan - on whose memoirs Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers” was based - found in a church in Maastricht, where he was killed in the French siege of 1673. Skeleton awaiting DNA test.
www.dutchnews.nl/2026/03/rema...

‘I will not comply’: Tennessee librarian refuses to move LGBTQ+ books — Advocate Rutherford County library director Luanne James’s stand against a vote to relocate more than 190 titles draws national support as the board weighs firing her.

“A Tennessee library director is drawing national support after refusing to relocate LGBTQ+ children’s books, citing the First Amendment.”

apple.news/AEgwuiGArT_m...

OK, so it’s official from the President of the United States when someone you don’t like dies it’s OK to say “I’m glad he’s dead” we got it in writing folks

Reminds me of the Brabacon, which is the name of the Belgian 🇧🇪 national anthem.

USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) - Wikipedia

I'm old enough to remember when Iran blew a 4.6m hole in a US guided missile frigate, almost sinking it and causing over $80 million in damage, using a surplus M-08 Imperial Russian contact mine of 1908 vintage. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sam...

This is the best lede I've seen in a tech story in...years? There should be an award just for ledes.

Explain it like I'm 5: Why is everyone on speakerphone in public? Your phone still functions when held to your ear, people!

I genuinely cringe when I see people holding their phone up to face, shouting into them and turning the volume up so everyone can hear it.

How can you missuse design so badly I ask?

How can you not know that it's designed to be held to an ear and mouth, hence the shape?

That headphones exist?

Hampstead and Highgate Express front page, Friday February 27, 1970: masthead and top story headline: Does a wampyr walk in Highgate?

Today we celebrate the fruits of one of the finest headlines ever to follow Betteridge’s Law, because it’s the 56th anniversary of “London’s most extended satanism flap”, when about 100 people broke into Highgate Cemetery to stake a vampire 🧵

I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.

This is a life and death story for the UK – so why is it being brushed under the carpet? | Aditya Chakrabortty The news that healthy life expectancy is in decline in Britain exposes a serious truth about the state we’re in, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

Healthy life expectancy in the UK has now dropped to 61, the lowest since records began in 2011. Healthy life expectancy has been falling in the UK since 2020. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This, right here, is criminal Trump’s invisibility cloak.

Normal people still can’t imagine the kind of man he really is, or the kind of things he’s capable of.

QuitGPT — OpenAI Execs are Trump's Biggest Donors Join the movement. Delete ChatGPT. Cancel your subscription. It's time to quit.

ChatGPT is Trump's biggest donor quitgpt.org

Guilty! Pipewell Foot Beagles Huntsman De-Horned - Hunt Saboteurs Association Philip Saunders, huntsman of the Pipewell Foot Beagles, was yesterday found guilty of illegal hunting at Northampton magistrate’s court. Fittingly, the conviction – only the second of a hare-hunting b...

Huntsman of the Pipewell Foot Beagles (Northants) convicted and fined for illegal hunting, judge orders his hunting horn destroyed. www.huntsabs.org.uk/guilty-pipew...

Progressive Texas organizers hail shock win as far-right Republicans left reeling Elation as anti-extremists fight back against influence of billionaire megadonors through grassroots organizing

"Progressive" Democrat candidate for Texas State Senate wins "shock" election despite Republican opponent spending ten times as much on their campaign. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

AIPAC Strategy Backfires as Progressive Underdog Wins Key House Race in New Jersey The pro-Israel lobby poured money into New Jersey’s special election — and ended up splitting the vote between two moderates.

"Progressive" Democrat candidate who is a former political director for Bernie Sanders takes House of Representatives seat in New Jersey despite Republicans and pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC spending ten times as much as her on their election campaign theintercept.com/2026/02/10/a...

AIPAC Strategy Backfires as Progressive Underdog Wins Key House Race in New Jersey The pro-Israel lobby poured money into New Jersey’s special election — and ended up splitting the vote between two moderates.

"Progressive" Democrat candidate who is a former political director for Bernie Sanders takes House of Representatives seat in New Jersey despite Republicans and pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC spending ten times as much as her on their election campaign theintercept.com/2026/02/10/a...

Asked about an SDS team-building trip to Amsterdam, Boyling said he "had a smoke in a bar”, he and other officers “walked through” the Red Light District. He also went on an SDS trip to Las Vegas.

Boyling doesn't recall any SDS officers or his managers expressing opinions about the McPherson Inquiry into Stephen Lawrence. Barr says other SDS have testified that opinions on this were expressed. #spycops

Boyling doesn't recall any discussion of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry at the regular meetings of SDS undercovers, nor of any opinions expressed at these meetings regarding former activist Jack Straw becoming Home Secretary. #spycops