Slightly surreal and spellbinding at the same time. I had the privilege of seeing in May morning from the top of Magdalen tower. A once in a lifetime experience!

May morning 2024

May morning ⁦Magdalen College⁩ 2019

Various Garrick Club members including Sting, Mark Knopfler and leading actors and producers have reportedly written to the Club chairman saying they’ll resign if the membership doesn’t vote to accept women next Tuesday. Many others like me would also find it impossible to stay.

John Simpson Nigeria continues to be the epicentre of fraud and extortion. Yet it used to be a country where education had priority, the Universities of Ife, Ibadan and others were well respected. The discovery of oil changed everything.

justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/c…

BBC News broadcast evidence of child starvation in #Gaza today
Israel won't allow the BBC to enter and report from Gaza, but the BBC was able to obtain this footage from an American doctor
#Gaza War
bbc.co.uk/news/world-mid…

My son is 18 — the age that is being preyed on by gangs of criminals in Nigeria etc. The gangs get, or pretend to have obtained, nude photos of them, and demand cash not to send the pics to all their contacts. 91% of UK victims last year were male. Several committed suicide.

I’m not usually too enthused by leading political figures, if only because, close up, they often aren’t what you hoped they’d be. Even so, for a US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken is a bit of a mensch. Here’s further evidence.

Russia in recent days. More arrests...more journalists:
* Sergei Mingazov (charge: allegedly spreading ‘false info’ about army)
* Konstantin Gabov (‘extremism’ charge)
* Sergey Karelin (‘extremism’ charge, reports AP)

30 years ago South Africa peacefully voted away the wicked and stupid system of apartheid and seemed to be on the way to a fine, prosperous future. Reporting on it was the happiest event of my professional life. But President Jacob Zuma’s corruption did irreparable damage to it.

Very proud to meet Mikhail Voskresensky, the most famous Russian pianist and a man of principle. When Putin invaded Ukraine, Voskresenky (who was 86 at the time) was so outraged that he spoke out against the war and had to abandon his entire life, home, wealth, friends and family

Thoughts on phone use during live performances - and why it's bad for everyone.

Imagine a general election campaign where a political party can interview itself on TV every day. It’s coming soon courtesy of Ofcom. My blog at profpurvis.com #Ofcom #GBNews

And then you get this sort of thing. No doubt there are people who believe it.

This certainly is ugly, unpleasant and unnecessary. But a thousand students and others weren’t massacred by trained and well-armed soldiers, as happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Excellent news — and there’s a brilliant interview with Jeremy and Justin Webb on their friendship in today’s Times.

Thank you for reading (and listening). If you enjoyed this thread, please share the post below and follow me (James Lucas) for more content 👇🏻

I’m not sure that Shakespeare wrote 14 lines better than these; let alone anyone else. And how wonderfully spoken by Dame Judi!

Borges used to explain that English was a marriage of tough Anglo-Saxon and courtly French, which explains why there were two parallel English words for just about everything. An Eng-French dictionary is just about double the size of a French-Eng one. Lovely to hear his voice.

Today is the birthday (and death day) of William Shakespeare. This short thread serves as a reflection on the passage of time, love, beauty, mortality and the meaning of life 🧵

1. Dame Judi Dench, Sonnet 29