Police boast of hacking VPN where criminals “believed themselves to be safe” https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/police-boast-of-hacking-vpn-where-criminals-believed-themselves-to-be-safe/ Law enforcement intercepted VPN traffic, seized domains, and arrested its operator.

Abortion is becoming a new front in Reform UK’s culture war https://www.opendemocracy.net/aabortion-reform-uk-politics-birth-decriminalization-farage Following abortion decriminalisation, analysis from @openDemocracy and the Fuller Project reveals the UK far right is pushing anti-abortion […]

‘No records’ from meetings between top officials and Mandelson’s lobbying firm https://www.opendemocracy.net/no-records-from-meetings-between-top-officials-and-mandelsons-lobbying-firm/ Government failed to declare meeting with top Global Counsel clients, and says no notes were taken at several […]

Patterns through a clear window covering, jasmine plant #fensterfreitag

RE: https://troet.cafe/@Pitpad/116619133811819914 I wish they'd build houses like this again 🥰

RE: https://mastodon.social/@glynmoody/116618974252205682 Stupid, stupid Americans. <tired face>

A recent SCUBA accident in the Maldives saw 5 divers perish & this article (auto-translated from Italian) says the cave they entered was at 50 meters depth. Elsewhere I read they didn't have cave diving training. They dove beyond typical recreational depth & entered a cave without training […]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@glynmoody/116613885651476073 HERO.

Riding one of Kauai's new electric busses for the first time, paid for by the Inflation Reduction Act. Thanks, Biden. $2 ride to the airport. ⚡ It's got that new bus smell. Bonus photo of a bird of paradise at the bus stop. #transit #hawaii

Six search engines worth trying now that Google isn’t really Google anymore https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/21/six-search-engines-worth-trying-now-that-google-isnt-really-google-anymore/ Google is about to look really different, and if you’re not a fan of the AI Overviews feature, then you’re not […]

Look at this sexy beast.

Scottish Reform leader's charity is breaking the law - and must comply with regulator https://tfn.scot/news/scottish-reform-leaders-charity-is-breaking-the-law-and-must-comply-with-regulator An investigation had been opened by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) into the Badenoch […]

RE: https://mstdn.social/@grickle/116613402405445333 "It's not easy being Green"

This is almost unbearably exciting!! TUESDAY. https://www.thenational.scot/news/26128282.first-minister-announces-date-holyrood-scottish-independence-vote/?nid=1457&u=d90fe19dc4acaac07b13d283d5477689&date=210526

‘It’s put the joy levels up’: the flood-prone London school with a climate-adapted playground #Climate

RE: https://mastodon.social/@ottaross/116612799074270191 Oh, don't show this to @lindseylavender, she'll want to paint it!

Have no doubt: the campaign to sack Misan Harriman is part of an assault on black figures in public life https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/21/misan-harriman-black-figures-public-life-london-southbank-centre-uk-culture The move against the boss of London’s Southbank Centre sends […]

The big question - when indeed will the Environment Agency do what it exists to do and, you know, er, enforce the law? Great work by @nicolacutcher.bsky.social and @friendsriverwye.bsky.social

The obvious result is to generate anger, resistance and resentment: feelings that are a gift to Reform UK, which wants to destroy the green transition altogether. The government's deep illiberalism is also one of the reasons former Labour voters feel so alienated and disgusted.

The police force protecting our nuclear sites keeps losing classified stuff https://www.theferret.scot/the-police-force-protecting-our-nuclear-sites-keeps-losing-classified-stuff/ Three years ago @theferret revealed a "litany" of security incidents within the police force which guards nuclear […]

Fire and ‘sheer volume’: how Britain’s 6m-vape problem is putting recycling under strain https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/17/disposable-vapes-suez-uk Despite the ban on disposables, waste professionals say the mountain of discarded devices is a £1bn-a-year issue

I am staggered by the sheer hugeness of this. The #WelshGovernment has a policy of bilingualism. All meetings include translators, so that speakers of English or Welsh can participate equally. But every member of the Welsh Cabinet is a native speaker of #Cymraeg […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

Google is sharing a bunch of stats about its AI advances, but not about carbon emissions, local water supply usage, or revenue sharing with the creators of data used to train its models. #googleio #ai

you know, I sometimes wonder whether there may have been some long-term downsides to a political economy that loaded housing costs and student debt onto young people in the expectation that growth would probably come back one day yeah

RE: https://mstdn.social/@JugglingWithEggs/116602629290945280 Can't we have Clive Lewis as PM?

RE: https://mastodon.scot/@kim_harding/116602456630344324 Probably not for those inside the boardroom either. Just wait till that bubble bursts...

1 in 5 Brits think AI layoffs could trigger civil unrest https://www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/19/1-in-5-brits-think-ai-layoffs-could-trigger-civil-unrest/5242444 UK folk increasingly don't believe AI jobs revolution will end in prosperity for anyone outside the boardroom, say researchers

‘Ukraine is paying the highest price to return home to European values,' Oleksandra Matviichuk says https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/05/19/ukraine-is-paying-the-highest-price-to-return-home-to-european-values-oleksandra-matviichu The Ukrainian human rights defender and European Order of […]

Poland directs officials to ditch Signal in favour of 'secure' state-developed alternative https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/05/18/poland-builds-its-own-signal-amid-security-concerns/5241824 Shift comes amid mounting reports of successful social engineering attacks targeting higher-ups […]

There is zero evidence of a "weaponized" Justice Department under Biden, because there was none. There is one now -- to an extent no one previously thought possible. This is projection. Another key point for today's coverage.

Israel has kidnapped the sister of the president of Ireland.

RE: https://chaos.social/@anotherdaniel/116596471781702774 100% true!

RE: https://exquisite.social/@thomholwerda/116594590090296885 Good grief, what next?

"None of it runs without energy. And the bloke who’s been advising every Republican administration since Reagan just helped his patron set fire to 30 per cent of the world’s industrial chemistry inputs because Bibi needed a distraction from his corruption trial" This is quite the essay! […]

In a world where AI agents consume, remix, and redistribute content at machine speed, three questions become urgent: ➡️ How do you prove what's yours? ➡️ How do you declare what AI did to it? ➡️ And how do you set the terms under which it can be used? @mirkolorenz tackles the issue in this […]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jbond/116594244728220908 This is disgusting.

KGEI Transmitter Building, Redwood City, CA, 2024. All the pixels, with worldwide coverage, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54131707918 #photography

This is so goddamn annoying. Universal basic income would reduce the fear of failure, increase access to capital, and increase the number of customers with discretionary income to spend. VC is incapable of investing in R&D to the degree government can. We should invest in science and also do UBI.

Toolmakers: If we make our batteries incompatible and color coded, our customers will stick with us and only buy our branded tools. Customers:

RE: https://mastodon.social/@randahl/116590989468256015 Sooo much air pollution. But perhaps this bombing of Moscow will put a stop to this ridiculous Putin ego-trip war?

viruses respect national borders, that's just science

A #hotel check-in system left a million passports and driver’s licenses open for anyone to see https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/15/a-hotel-check-in-system-left-a-million-passports-and-drivers-licenses-open-for-anyone-to-see/ #privacy #cybersecurity #databreach #travel #passport #driverslicense […]

Some good news for Sunday morning :) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/seabed-life-triples-after-bottom-trawling-ban-in-scotland-protected-area/ #bottomtrawlingban

Why can't we have rural life that has public transport? Back in the 1970s when there were a lot fewer cars, it was actually much easier to get around rural areas, because there were lots of buses, there were more trainlines, and the last mile was easy to do by taxi.

RE: https://mstdn.social/@Free_Press/116589891538359113 Sooo much air pollution.

Seen near Holborn Station, on the route of the Unite the Kingdom rally. The poster says it better than most speeches: When the scapegoats are gone, the borders are fortified, and the hatred has done its damage, the cost of living will still rise, the NHS […] [Original post on mastodon.online]

Boarding Air Force One in Beijing, the entire U.S. delegation dumped EVERYTHING the Chinese hosts gave them - gifts, badges, pins, souvenirs - straight into a trash bin at the bottom of the stairs. “Nothing from China allowed on the plane.” They even left all […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Something wicked this way comes. Hidden away in the English local election results was an alarming sign English politics may move even further to the far right than they have already. There is no place for Scotland in a far right English nationalist UK. weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2026/05/17/s...