Confessions of a political liveblogger: ‘I enjoy it professionally – but, as a citizen, you can think the country’s going to hell in a handcart’

Andrew Sparrow has been writing the Guardian’s daily political live blog for more than 15 years. How does he cope with the relentless psychodrama of British politics?

X suspends 800m accounts in one year amid ‘massive’ scale of manipulation attempts

Social media company tells MPs of continual fight against state-backed efforts, with Russia being most prolific

UK threatens action against X over sexualised AI images of women and children

Government signals support for possible Ofcom intervention on Grok as scrutiny of X’s AI tool intensifies

Google AI summaries are ruining the livelihoods of recipe writers: ‘It’s an extinction event’

AI Mode is mangling recipes by merging instructions from multiple creators – and causing them huge dips in ad traffic

‘Americans are democracy’s equivalent of second-generation wealth’: a Chinese journalist on the US under Trump

The long read: Once a stalwart of Hong Kong’s journalism scene, Wang Jian has found a new audience on YouTube, dissecting global politics and US-China relations since the pandemic. To his fans, he’s part professor, part friend

UK Online Safety Act risks ‘seriously infringing’ free speech, says X

Elon Musk’s social media platform says lawmakers made a ‘conscientious decision’ to increase censorship

Where authors gossip, geek out and let off steam: 15 of the best literary Substacks

More and more writers are publishing newsletters – but which are worth your time? From Margaret Atwood to Hanif Kureishi, George Saunders to Miranda July, here’s our guide to the best

How three young Londoners set out to explore the countries of their parents’ birth – and redefined the travel vlog

‘No resorts, no tourist traps and no fancy restaurants’ – the friends behind the Kids of the Colony YouTube channel go in search of real connections in their countries of origin

Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez denounces Elon Musk at Franco anniversary event

Sánchez accuses X owner of inciting hatred as country marks 50 years since start of its return to democracy

How I beat overwhelm: I loved Twitter – but Musk and menopause made me quit

The social media site was great at first. I met my best friend there and it made my professional dreams come true. But the secondhand stress was ultimately too much

Australian-style social media ban for under-16s ‘a retrograde step’, say UK charities

Child safety experts say similar move in Britain would penalise young people for the failings of tech companies

Reddit overtakes X in popularity of social media platforms in UK

Discussion platform takes fifth place in rankings and is the fastest growing large social media platform in the UK

I’ve joined Bluesky and it feels like a breath of fresh air – in some ways…

The flourishing new platform may be like Twitter once was. The problem is the limited algorithmic scope of all social media

Stephen King leaves X, describing atmosphere as ‘too toxic’

Author denies Elon Musk kicked him off platform and says he is joining rival Threads

The blogosphere is in full bloom. The rest of the internet has wilted

As blogging pioneer Dave Winer’s site turns 30, it’s a reminder that good writing and thinking has flourished beyond the reach of social media