Beautiful morning on the Thames today. Lots of runners and rowers.

Sums it up

A good and important read about America’s past in connection to its present. Here’s hoping for many more George Dales. And here’s where we need to be as soon as possible: “The storm has passed and the timid have become bold and recovered their voices.”

Labour MPs tonight rejected Plaid Cymru's calls for control over the Crown Estate to be given to Wales. Scotland already has the powers. Only Plaid Cymru stands up for Wales.

An extraordinary session at the United Nations in New York this week where the extent of lost US influence in the international order under the new administration was laid bare over Ukraine. This article only brushes over the surface but makes the point: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Good morning to this man, and this man only #bbcqt

Traffic in Putney is now so bad that we even have pedestrian traffic jams: this was the scene at Hammersmith Bridge this morning! #Hammersmith #Putney #Wandsworth

It’s hard to convey just how bad traffic in Putney is. If everyone wants growth, how about not wasting an hour of thousands of people’s time in this one part of London every single day? Hammersmith Bridge could be solved tomorrow if our political reps would stop talking and start acting

I’ve done 1,000 Wordles and the starts are in: I get the answer in three tries 34%of the time (I’m pretty pleased with this) and in four 39% of the time. Intrigued to know how others do - can you beat me?

Love every part of this story: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Pot kettle black: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/t...

How do you explain internet tech to people who live a tank-and-borders world? The idea of Meta as a scapegoat because this time around, people in a different country came up with a better solution? How did America - of all places - end up thinking like this? www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

Damn. I was really hoping this case would go to trial so we would find out once and for all what really happened behind the scenes at newspapers: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Because of the bizarre decision to ban TikTok in the US, this morning I’ve had to delete the app (downloaded in the US though a US AppleID), reinstall it, and create a new account — just to watch short videos that tbh haven’t done little but worry me about the way the world works. Happy Sunday

What is the point of a (really fun) SNL product parody rundown without including Taco Town - the finest takedown of American fast food the world has seen? www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/a...

This government continues to disappoint. Every word of this self-involved, whiny, disconnected defense by our Chancellor shows why Labour are performing so badly. They can’t seem to switch mindset from campaigning to governing: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is what happens when divisive politics goes over the tipping point. Facts, reason and (justified) criticism all get lost amid the flurry of blame, finger-pointing and recrimination. And we all suffer: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/s...

This article should not exist. It only exists because of the unserious, clickbaity world of modern media. And it gives power and weight to the worst behaving people: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Crazy story: Australian woman duped into getting married (so he could get permanent residency) as part of a social media stunt to get Instagram followers. There’s a happyish ending: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

This feels like a living history lesson: the French (far) right, in the ascendancy, is trying to rewrite the legacy of Jean-Marie Le Pen - a foul racist that even it had distanced itself from: x.com/sebchenu/sta...

You’ve got to be kidding me: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/t...

I noticed a few years ago that the UK real estate market plants ridiculous always-optimistic stories in the press all the time but especially when things look bleak. We have a prime example today in The Guardian. The subhead is a work of disassociate genius: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Fascinating piece from Lloyds List about the Russian tanker boarded by the Finnish coast guard on Christmas Day. Turns out it was packed to the gills with surveillance gear that used so much power they occasionally caused brownouts on board.

I recall, 25 years ago now, numerous journalists literally writing that this is what would happen if RIPA was passed unchanged — Journalists who were unlawfully spied on have ‘no doubt’ UK reporters are still targeted: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...

WOW! Investigative journalists illegally spied on... Police acted unlawfully spying on journalists, ruled UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal – landmark win for press freedom and accountability. 👇

It shouldn’t need saying but if a billionaire from a foreign country is able to fund a political party in the UK, the rules need changing.

Another awful decision by the Starmer government: refusing to pay compensation to women retirees. It should be paid as a point of principle.The government messed up, a (lengthy) review recommended compensation. If you don’t follow through, it will never change: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Always a joy to open up the new Private Eye…

Wonder why every Lib Dem MP isn’t signed up to this. They should be — House of Commons should consider electronic voting, MPs say in letter

On a recent episode of The Internet, Seriously, we talked about how worrying it was that people online are increasingly justifying extreme violence. Two generations away from the lessons of WWII and there is support for a man who murdered a powerful figure (health insurance CEO) in broad daylight…

Worth noting that on 1 Jan 2025, new privacy legislation will come into force in five more states in the US: Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire and New Jersey. Why is this important not just in the US but also Europe and the UK?…

The prime minister is giving a speech right now at Pinewood Studios. The hope is have some kind of reset for a Labour government that everyone has been pretty underwhelmed by. Let's see what he has to say...

I’ve reached the stage where my teenage daughter is now my link to contemporary culture: I knew everything on the shortlist for the OED Word of the Year thanks entirely to her. It’s a different kind of ‘brain rot’ but it’s there nonetheless

I love America but there are some political structures I really dislike, are wrong, and should not exist: life terms for Supreme Court judges is one; the president’s right to pardon is another.

The prime minister needs some better writers. So many missed opportunities with this response to the nonsense Musk-pushed petition. “You talk about a petition. We had one with 60 million people just this summer - except we called it an election… “ /1

A clear case for why you must listen and try to understand the lives of people you seek to represent before outlining your plans to assist them. There is a chasm of understanding here.

Latest 'The Internet, Seriously' episode out. China's latest hack exposes vulnerabilities in US surveillance systems. A bizarre and dangerous Yakuza data leak. British Airways stumbles into yet another tech meltdown. And, of course, we couldn't let ICANN off the hook: www.youtube.com/live/RVVnvea...

Another story reflecting exactly what people have been warning about for years: the Chinese hacked the systems used to tap the phone lines in America. The US surveillance systems are shameful: propped up by Senators and dodgy law, widely abused, and outdated: www.nytimes.com/2024/11/21/u...

Just doesn’t make sense. It’s a new banana & new duct-tape likely not placed by the artist and someone has paid a small fortune for it. Presumably the original aspect is a signature on the white board? Just ludicrous— Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped banana artwork fetches US$5.2m at New York auction

We’ve talking and warning about it for years but now it seems that cutting fibre optic cables has become a normal part of global warfare. Typically takes a few weeks to repair: www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/b...

I see that Bluesky will hit 20 million users by the end of the day. It’s a remarkable shift considering it was 15m last week - and reminds us of the dynamism that the internet allows. Plus of course the wreckage of forgotten giants of the past: Friendster, Napster, MySpace etc.

The next Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in 2025 will be held in Norway, according to the Norwegian government. There are two very interesting aspects to this news… www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/n...

There’s been a lot of speculation about the future of the .io Internet extension now the UK government has decided to hand over the Chagos islands to Mauritius. Will ownership of it change? Will the commercial entity currently running it needs to reach a new deal? Will it be discontinued altogether?

What is it with November? In the next two weeks I need to: help organise an AGM and give two presentations at it; write three posts/papers on AI and KYC, the future of multistakeholderism, and a global policy for deciding access to abuse data…

I have started using Bluesky and Twitter/X interchangeably, and here’s the thing… if I start feeling irritated, or annoyed, or scroll a whole screen just to get away from the content, it is always, always because I’m on Twitter. It’s like a bad relationship.

The protocol created by BlueSky to allow Internet domains to serve as verification (which I have used just this week) - atproto - is to be opened up by feeding it through Internet standards body the IETF. It shows promise; I hope the IETF feels similarly

2023 Protocol Roadmap — just published on the dev blog! This blog is written for developers already familiar with atproto concepts and terminology. We are pushing towards federation on the production network early next year (2024), if development continues as planned.

I took part in a fascinating two-day retreat at Ditchley last month to consider how the Internet should be governed in the future. Here's my write-up: dnsrf.org/blog/taking-...

I talked about @bsky.app and how this shift away from Twitter/X feels substantial and important on The Internet, Seriously podcast this week: open.spotify.com/episode/5Eck...

11 of the first 14 news stories on the New York Times today are about Trump; the other three are about Musk. Then an important story: 2/3rds of Americans are now clinically obese. Then Trump again. Why has the NYT not learned from last time? This level of obsession gives the man more power.