Harriet Marsden
@harriet1marsden.bsky.social
Senior staff writer and podcast panellist at The Week. Formerly journalist at The Guardian, The Times, The Independent & others. Writes our free weekly newsletter, Global Digest: https://theweek.com/globaldigest
Pinned
Fuck around: make compelling case at work for a Bluesky account
Find out: am now running our Bluesky account
Please, I beg you, follow @theweekmagazine.bsky.social so I don't get canned before Christmas
Find out: am now running our Bluesky account
Please, I beg you, follow @theweekmagazine.bsky.social so I don't get canned before Christmas
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
I emailed Olivia yesterday and editor Peter Savodnik today to point out a couple of glaring errors in this piece about famine classification. No response from either of them.
Wow! A lot of feedback here—thank you for engaging with our work at @thefp.com and for reading about this important issue.
Full story: www.thefp.com/p/they-becam...
Full story: www.thefp.com/p/they-becam...
They Became Symbols for Gazan Starvation. But All 12 Suffer from Other Health Problems.
A Free Press investigation found that the viral photos lacked important context: The subjects have cystic fibrosis, rickets, or other serious ailments.
www.thefp.com
August 20, 2025 at 1:43 AM
I emailed Olivia yesterday and editor Peter Savodnik today to point out a couple of glaring errors in this piece about famine classification. No response from either of them.
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
Under Evo Morales’s presidency the Chapare, Bolivia’s cocoa kingdom, flourished. Now public money no longer flows to the region. Drug labs have more often been busted. And the mood could worsen still after an upcoming election
Bolivia’s crazy kingdom of coca
Former leader Evo Morales is hiding out there
econ.st
August 16, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Under Evo Morales’s presidency the Chapare, Bolivia’s cocoa kingdom, flourished. Now public money no longer flows to the region. Drug labs have more often been busted. And the mood could worsen still after an upcoming election
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
the joining factor in the language that's everywhere is that it's about sex as denigration and subjugation (implicitly or explicitly overwhelmingly of women) and sex as something pleasant, romantic, or intriguing is considered dangerous.
in this week's newsletter! a rant against this weird sex culture we seem to now live in: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/everything...
August 15, 2025 at 1:57 PM
the joining factor in the language that's everywhere is that it's about sex as denigration and subjugation (implicitly or explicitly overwhelmingly of women) and sex as something pleasant, romantic, or intriguing is considered dangerous.
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
Protest is not terrorism
www.independent.co.uk/voices/pales...
www.independent.co.uk/voices/pales...
Arresting hundreds for protesting against a ban on Palestine Action shames us all
This is supposed to be a free country – but doling out criminal records to hundreds of pensioners should serve as a rebuke to the government, whose heavy-handed approach to this ‘terror’ organisation ...
www.independent.co.uk
August 12, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Protest is not terrorism
www.independent.co.uk/voices/pales...
www.independent.co.uk/voices/pales...
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
Did a lengthy interview with BBC Brazil about my book Lost Boys.
The Machosphere's Scams to Make Boys and Men Hate Women: www.bbc.com/portuguese/a...
The Machosphere's Scams to Make Boys and Men Hate Women: www.bbc.com/portuguese/a...
Os golpes da 'machosfera' para fazer garotos e homens odiarem as mulheres - BBC News Brasil
Autor britânico James Bloodworth passou meses frequentando eventos de gurus da chamada 'machosfera' para entender como funciona uma indústria voltada ao ódio às mulheres.
www.bbc.com
August 9, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Did a lengthy interview with BBC Brazil about my book Lost Boys.
The Machosphere's Scams to Make Boys and Men Hate Women: www.bbc.com/portuguese/a...
The Machosphere's Scams to Make Boys and Men Hate Women: www.bbc.com/portuguese/a...
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
Thirty years after Operation Storm, perhaps things are finally changing in Knin. Good report here.
balkaninsight.com/2023/08/04/i...
balkaninsight.com/2023/08/04/i...
In Operation Storm’s ‘Victory City’, Croats and Serbs Share Common Hopes
The city of Knin became symbolic after the Croatian flag was raised at its fortress when rebel Serbs were defeated in Operation Storm in 1995, but most Croats and Serbs living there now are more conce...
balkaninsight.com
August 7, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Thirty years after Operation Storm, perhaps things are finally changing in Knin. Good report here.
balkaninsight.com/2023/08/04/i...
balkaninsight.com/2023/08/04/i...
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
Publishers are shifting their focus towards direct reader relationships via apps because “social traffic is close to vanishing, and with the rise of generative AI and the threat of Google zero, search appears to be heading the same way” pressgazette.co.uk/news/publish...
Publishers see apps as solution to vanishing social traffic, says Pugpig
Pugpig's survey for the second quarter of 2025 has found publishers are focusing on direct reader relationships and audio.
pressgazette.co.uk
August 6, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Publishers are shifting their focus towards direct reader relationships via apps because “social traffic is close to vanishing, and with the rise of generative AI and the threat of Google zero, search appears to be heading the same way” pressgazette.co.uk/news/publish...
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
I don't generally care to get preachy about "journalism" and what it is or isn't but I feel like a good baseline is the people a reporter interviews ought to exist
August 4, 2025 at 7:24 PM
I don't generally care to get preachy about "journalism" and what it is or isn't but I feel like a good baseline is the people a reporter interviews ought to exist
If you ever generate a posthumous AI version of me I truly believe even dead cosplay me will lecture you about the perils
August 4, 2025 at 9:02 PM
If you ever generate a posthumous AI version of me I truly believe even dead cosplay me will lecture you about the perils
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts.
The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.
Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.
The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.
Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.
August 4, 2025 at 3:29 PM
I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts.
The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.
Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.
The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.
Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.
People keep saying Gen AI is going to replace us but surely no bot is ever going to come up with something as hilarious as this. "Spend the day in Manchester" - 10/10 shade
July 31, 2025 at 8:06 PM
People keep saying Gen AI is going to replace us but surely no bot is ever going to come up with something as hilarious as this. "Spend the day in Manchester" - 10/10 shade
You will never convince me that the ubiquity of the Mormon Prairie Sack Dress aesthetic of the last eight years (read: shapeless, sexless, beige / pastel, often floral) isn't enmeshed with the backlash against sex-positive feminism and the rise of the trad wife. Like, it's giving virgin
I do not understand dresses for women. These are from Toast, but everywhere I look they are enormous marquees suitable only for women over 6ft tall. I am 5'2": I couldn't wear any of these (link to these and other Toast frocks here www.toa.st/collections/...)
July 31, 2025 at 7:16 PM
You will never convince me that the ubiquity of the Mormon Prairie Sack Dress aesthetic of the last eight years (read: shapeless, sexless, beige / pastel, often floral) isn't enmeshed with the backlash against sex-positive feminism and the rise of the trad wife. Like, it's giving virgin
Sound the alarm it's MORMON PRAIRIE SACK DRESS SEASON again
I do not understand dresses for women. These are from Toast, but everywhere I look they are enormous marquees suitable only for women over 6ft tall. I am 5'2": I couldn't wear any of these (link to these and other Toast frocks here www.toa.st/collections/...)
July 31, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Sound the alarm it's MORMON PRAIRIE SACK DRESS SEASON again
OMG NOT NOW RADIOACTIVE WASP NEST
July 30, 2025 at 8:22 PM
OMG NOT NOW RADIOACTIVE WASP NEST
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
It’s not unrelated that Spotify’s CEO just raised hundreds of millions for an autonomous military drones company. The digital exploitation—> surveillance as solution to moral panic —> AI war profiteer pipeline is fairly direct.
Spotify Is Forcing Users to Undergo Face Scanning to Access Explicit Content
🔗 www.404media.co/spotify-uk-a...
🔗 www.404media.co/spotify-uk-a...
Spotify Is Forcing Users to Undergo Face Scanning to Access Explicit Content
Submit to biometric face scanning or risk your account being deleted, Spotify says, following the enactment of the UK's Online Safety Act.
www.404media.co
July 30, 2025 at 5:17 PM
It’s not unrelated that Spotify’s CEO just raised hundreds of millions for an autonomous military drones company. The digital exploitation—> surveillance as solution to moral panic —> AI war profiteer pipeline is fairly direct.
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
Surrogacy agreements hold no weight under UK law—meaning at any moment the surrogate or intended parents can ghost the other party, writes Lorna Petty.
www.prospectmagazine...
www.prospectmagazine...
The legal limbo of UK surrogacy
Surrogacy agreements hold no weight under UK law—meaning at any moment the surrogate or intended parents can withdraw
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
July 30, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Surrogacy agreements hold no weight under UK law—meaning at any moment the surrogate or intended parents can ghost the other party, writes Lorna Petty.
www.prospectmagazine...
www.prospectmagazine...
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
Part of the problem is the conflation between generative AI (completely bollocks “spicy autocomplete” that’s killing the planet) and machine learning (the scientific uses to expose patterns in enormous data sets which can then be explored by humans)
July 30, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Part of the problem is the conflation between generative AI (completely bollocks “spicy autocomplete” that’s killing the planet) and machine learning (the scientific uses to expose patterns in enormous data sets which can then be explored by humans)
Watching Sarina Wiegman lose her famous controlled cool and jump up and down to Sweet Caroline is EVERYTHING
July 27, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Watching Sarina Wiegman lose her famous controlled cool and jump up and down to Sweet Caroline is EVERYTHING
I miss Mary Earps so damn much
July 27, 2025 at 6:40 PM
I miss Mary Earps so damn much
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
In my debut for @theatlantic.com, I wrote about the disappearance of cultural listings from major New York media outlets, and what it portends for artists, audiences, institutions, and journalists. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Why No One Knows What’s Happening Tonight
A love letter to music listings
www.theatlantic.com
July 27, 2025 at 1:18 PM
In my debut for @theatlantic.com, I wrote about the disappearance of cultural listings from major New York media outlets, and what it portends for artists, audiences, institutions, and journalists. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
imagine telling the columnists who wanted to send in the army on some inner-London kids in 2011 that fifteen years on they'd actually be pro-riots
July 26, 2025 at 8:43 AM
imagine telling the columnists who wanted to send in the army on some inner-London kids in 2011 that fifteen years on they'd actually be pro-riots
I think about this a lotttt
I do sometimes wonder, given the prevalence of exam anxiety dreams well into adulthood, quite how badly we're fucking ourselves up with this stuff
July 25, 2025 at 10:27 PM
I think about this a lotttt
Reposted by Harriet Marsden
A looming global water crisis may be under appreciated as climate change takes hold. Today I report on a new study that finds the planet is quickly drying, with mega-regions of water loss now stretching across continents. www.propublica.org/article/wate...
“Staggering” Water Loss Driven by Groundwater Mining Poses Global Threat
A new study finds that freshwater resources are rapidly disappearing, creating arid “mega” regions and causing sea levels to rise.
www.propublica.org
July 25, 2025 at 7:27 PM
A looming global water crisis may be under appreciated as climate change takes hold. Today I report on a new study that finds the planet is quickly drying, with mega-regions of water loss now stretching across continents. www.propublica.org/article/wate...
Hands up who else didn't know Joan Collins was the OG Bitch?
Dead at this outtake from this week's episode of our podcast, The Week Unwrapped - now with shiny new video (literally, because those lights get hottt) open.spotify.com/episode/7cjR...
Dead at this outtake from this week's episode of our podcast, The Week Unwrapped - now with shiny new video (literally, because those lights get hottt) open.spotify.com/episode/7cjR...
July 25, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Hands up who else didn't know Joan Collins was the OG Bitch?
Dead at this outtake from this week's episode of our podcast, The Week Unwrapped - now with shiny new video (literally, because those lights get hottt) open.spotify.com/episode/7cjR...
Dead at this outtake from this week's episode of our podcast, The Week Unwrapped - now with shiny new video (literally, because those lights get hottt) open.spotify.com/episode/7cjR...
Credit to @londoncentric.media for our segment on Lime bike safety concerns on the latest episode of @theweek.com's podcast, The Week Unwrapped: open.spotify.com/episode/7cjR...
Ukrainian corruption, Unesco and rental bikes
The Week Unwrapped - with Olly Mann · Episode
open.spotify.com
July 25, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Credit to @londoncentric.media for our segment on Lime bike safety concerns on the latest episode of @theweek.com's podcast, The Week Unwrapped: open.spotify.com/episode/7cjR...