Martin Langfield
@mlang7.bsky.social
Writer and journalist. Head of Content, USA at educational app Yuno. Author of “The Malice Box.” Ex-Reuters correspondent/columnist/bureau chief. Opinions my own, facts not.
I wrote an article for my friends at News Decoder about the age-old balance between security and freedom, and how the increasingly dictatorial Nayib Bukele in El Salvador should be a cautionary tale, not an inspiration, for his admirers in the United States.
www.linkedin.com/posts/newsde...
www.linkedin.com/posts/newsde...
A warm rapport with the “world’s coolest dictator” | News Decoder
The people of El Salvador, and Donald Trump, love Nayib Bukele’s iron fist approach to fighting crime. But how long can a state of emergency last?
🗞️ Correspondent Martin Langfield unpacks Bukele's d...
www.linkedin.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:00 PM
I wrote an article for my friends at News Decoder about the age-old balance between security and freedom, and how the increasingly dictatorial Nayib Bukele in El Salvador should be a cautionary tale, not an inspiration, for his admirers in the United States.
www.linkedin.com/posts/newsde...
www.linkedin.com/posts/newsde...
Killing, injuring and intimidating those who provide eye-witness testimony from areas of conflict is all about eluding public scrutiny and controling the narrative. It’s a crime, whoever does it and wherever they try it. Character assassination is part of it. Public actions require public scrutiny.
August 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Killing, injuring and intimidating those who provide eye-witness testimony from areas of conflict is all about eluding public scrutiny and controling the narrative. It’s a crime, whoever does it and wherever they try it. Character assassination is part of it. Public actions require public scrutiny.
Pritzker: This is not about fighting crime. This is about the President and his complicit lackey, Stephen Miller, searching for ways to lay the groundwork to circumvent our democracy, militarize our cities, and end elections.
August 26, 2025 at 4:09 PM
I stand with my former employers, Reuters, on this. It’s not just about Gaza. Public actions require public scrutiny. www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
Joint statement on Gaza from AFP, AP, BBC News and Reuters
www.bbc.com
July 25, 2025 at 2:02 AM
I stand with my former employers, Reuters, on this. It’s not just about Gaza. Public actions require public scrutiny. www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
The USA has presidents, for 8 years max. Not kings. And certainly not banana-republic caudillos.
June 14, 2025 at 3:30 PM
The USA has presidents, for 8 years max. Not kings. And certainly not banana-republic caudillos.
The major news wires are professional and reliable. They have to be. Governments, financial institutions and the smaller news organizations they serve need them to be so. Reuters, the AP and Bloomberg News today issued this statement in response to the White House: reutersagency.com/resources/st...
Statement from the editors of Reuters, The Associated Press and Bloomberg News
Statement from the editors of Reuters, The Associated Press and Bloomberg News
reutersagency.com
February 26, 2025 at 8:44 PM
The major news wires are professional and reliable. They have to be. Governments, financial institutions and the smaller news organizations they serve need them to be so. Reuters, the AP and Bloomberg News today issued this statement in response to the White House: reutersagency.com/resources/st...
A privilege to see the great Scott Wallace at New York’s Explorers Club last night, where he gave a powerful talk on his time reporting the civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s and early 1990s. Our paths briefly crossed there. www.gftbooks.com/books_Wallac...
February 25, 2025 at 10:48 AM
A privilege to see the great Scott Wallace at New York’s Explorers Club last night, where he gave a powerful talk on his time reporting the civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s and early 1990s. Our paths briefly crossed there. www.gftbooks.com/books_Wallac...
As an American citizen by choice, I would like to say that my adoptive country is now suffering banana-republic levels of mendacity, incompetence and vindictiveness from the wannabe strongman occupying the White House. But on reflection, that would be unfair to banana-republic strongmen.
February 20, 2025 at 1:27 AM
As an American citizen by choice, I would like to say that my adoptive country is now suffering banana-republic levels of mendacity, incompetence and vindictiveness from the wannabe strongman occupying the White House. But on reflection, that would be unfair to banana-republic strongmen.
2/2:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
February 19, 2025 at 2:12 AM
2/2:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
1/2: From “September 1, 1939,” by W.H. Auden (original version)
(…)
We must love one another or die.
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
(…)
We must love one another or die.
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
February 19, 2025 at 2:12 AM
1/2: From “September 1, 1939,” by W.H. Auden (original version)
(…)
We must love one another or die.
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
(…)
We must love one another or die.
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
I recently halted a Dalek invasion of East Anglia and the world. You’re welcome.
January 17, 2025 at 1:33 PM
I recently halted a Dalek invasion of East Anglia and the world. You’re welcome.
The Holme Post is at the lowest point in England, in Holme Fen, Cambridgeshire. In 1851 the top of the post was at ground level. Fen drainage has since caused the drying peat soil of the area to shrink and subside, exposing more and more of the metal post, which is embedded in the clay below.
January 15, 2025 at 8:18 AM
The Holme Post is at the lowest point in England, in Holme Fen, Cambridgeshire. In 1851 the top of the post was at ground level. Fen drainage has since caused the drying peat soil of the area to shrink and subside, exposing more and more of the metal post, which is embedded in the clay below.
RIP Tony Slattery, seen here in rehearsals for the 1981 Footlights pantomime “The Pied Piper.” A kind, brilliant man and star of the aforementioned “Premises, Premises” show in 1982, gone today, way too soon.
January 15, 2025 at 12:46 AM
RIP Tony Slattery, seen here in rehearsals for the 1981 Footlights pantomime “The Pied Piper.” A kind, brilliant man and star of the aforementioned “Premises, Premises” show in 1982, gone today, way too soon.
Sometimes it just takes a change of perspective to make the world seem strange and miraculous again, as it surely is. Our day-to-day brains are not geared to reality but to survival.
January 14, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Sometimes it just takes a change of perspective to make the world seem strange and miraculous again, as it surely is. Our day-to-day brains are not geared to reality but to survival.
5. I toured the UK with these gentlemen in a comedy show in the summer of 1982. Richard Vranch was musical director, Neil Mullarkey one of the cast and I was the drummer. It was great to see them again tonight, 42-odd years later, in their fabulous show at London’s Comedy Store! #comedystoreplayers
January 13, 2025 at 1:01 AM
5. I toured the UK with these gentlemen in a comedy show in the summer of 1982. Richard Vranch was musical director, Neil Mullarkey one of the cast and I was the drummer. It was great to see them again tonight, 42-odd years later, in their fabulous show at London’s Comedy Store! #comedystoreplayers
I would like to make Bluesky work like the good bits of Instagram and Facebook, the latter now almost extinct. Contact with friends and family, a place for interesting pictures and connection with like-minded souls, without becoming just an echo chamber of its own. Let’s see what we can do.
January 12, 2025 at 12:43 PM
I would like to make Bluesky work like the good bits of Instagram and Facebook, the latter now almost extinct. Contact with friends and family, a place for interesting pictures and connection with like-minded souls, without becoming just an echo chamber of its own. Let’s see what we can do.
4. The Spotted Eagle Ray looks remarkably like a person up close. Here’s one making a new friend at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, England a few months ago. Am I anthropomorphizing? Sure.
January 12, 2025 at 12:34 PM
4. The Spotted Eagle Ray looks remarkably like a person up close. Here’s one making a new friend at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, England a few months ago. Am I anthropomorphizing? Sure.
3. My avatar represents Old Scarlett, the gravedigger who buried two queens at Peterborough Cathedral and was interred there himself after dying aged 98 in 1594. Legend has it that he inspired Shakespeare‘s gravedigger character in “Hamlet.”
January 10, 2025 at 8:59 AM
3. My avatar represents Old Scarlett, the gravedigger who buried two queens at Peterborough Cathedral and was interred there himself after dying aged 98 in 1594. Legend has it that he inspired Shakespeare‘s gravedigger character in “Hamlet.”
Image 2, and the first in an occasional series on Very Interesting Drums: Sir Francis Drake took this snare drum with him when he sailed around the world. Legend has it that, like King Arthur, it will noisily stir to life whenever England is in danger. Here it is on display at the Box in Plymouth.
January 9, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Image 2, and the first in an occasional series on Very Interesting Drums: Sir Francis Drake took this snare drum with him when he sailed around the world. Legend has it that, like King Arthur, it will noisily stir to life whenever England is in danger. Here it is on display at the Box in Plymouth.
First image: Trinity Church seen from Wall Street.
January 8, 2025 at 6:41 AM
First image: Trinity Church seen from Wall Street.
First post! Let’s see how this goes.
January 8, 2025 at 5:06 AM
First post! Let’s see how this goes.