Good morning! It appears Monsieur le President Macron finally decided to run for re-election. He waited till the last possible minute. Everyone knew he’d run but by not announcing he made it look as though he was busy running the country, operating on the world stage, and let people contemplate what things would be like were one of the other candidates to be elected. Smart.

Meanwhile eight women have accused the ultra right wing candidate Éric Zemmour of inappropriate behaviour and sexual violence.

There appears to be a race to the bottom in South Korea where both candidates are accused of courting young mens’s votes by being more sexist than the other.

President Biden is reported as turning off the taps to Russian oil.

But Podemos is not so sure about sending arms to Ukraine.

All this talk of boycotts and supply chains doesn’t appear to stretch to asking Apple to stop using Uighyur slave labour in China.

On Monday afternoon Private Eye investigative reporter Richard Brooks did a presentation at a college in London in which he got pupils thinking about where their news comes from. Whether it is filtered by algorithms and which stories are not actually true. A mature student at the back took this picture.

Lindsey Barraclough author of the Long Lankin series did a wonderful presentation about witchcraft, life in the 1950s, and what it is like to be an author.

Meanwhile the usual propaganda shows no sign of relenting.

Fraud as a Service

The Banks pay a lot for advertising which keeps newspapers going and use lots of the same lawyers as the newspaper owners so very rarely is a bad word said about them. This story deserves more prominence but of course you don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

And it looks like taxpayer money is subsidising the Prince Andrew settlement with the sex trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre. We aren’t allowed to know the details even though we’re paying for the settlement.

What a way to behave!