More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

How Russian-funded fake news network aims to disrupt election in Europe - BBC investigation www.bbc.com/news/article...

@bellingcat.com CEO @eliothiggins.bsky.social discusses his thoughts on how democracy needs verification, deliberation, and accountability and how social media algorithms disrupt those elements. From the Democracy for Sale podcast. youtu.be/7si0HCTyr1Y

[me, a journalist who spends all day every day on a social media app where the discovery algorithm is personally controlled by its owner, captain birdseye] you know, a lot of people are talking about fish fingers, we should probably cover that

I sense that we have to resolve normalcy bias, with some urgency, to engage in some of today's societal meta-problems. thedecisionlab.com/biases/norma...

Some politicians blame the statisticians when the statistics look grim. How does blaming the messenger generally work out? timharford.com/2025/09/why-...

Basic media and information literacy. (Currently out of fashion)

Via @ellarroyo_atx

My Amazon homepage has suddenly become like the middle aisle in Lidl 🤷🏻‍♂️

Oh ffs futurism.com/ai-polling-i...

This is a great conversation - even if you know about @bellingcat.com pca.st/episode/e8b0...

The House of Lords just released a major report on media literacy. Its core message is that the UK is falling behind, and it’s putting democracy at risk. committees.parliament.uk/work/9030/me...

There are a lot of idiots enraged by this misleading Times headline. The article itself - yes, the exact same one - points out that: A) In any typical year, about 50 independent schools close B) More independent schools opened than shut, so the overall number went up. But that's far too nuanced.

on.ft.com/4ousXn2 Is there a case for climate optimism?

Cambridge Disinformation Summit webinar, from 2023 on Journalism & Democratic Backsliding, with NYU Prof @jayrosen.bsky.social Cardiff Prof (former BBC) @sambrook.bsky.social & CityU Fellow (former Haaretz) @panievsky.bsky.social youtu.be/MrAnVd35bcE

I wish someone would invent a really cynical AI bot that responded with things like “don’t be so f#%^*ing stupid” …

As @thenewworldmag.bsky.social said last week, the problem with TV like #TheAssassin or #Blackdoves is we are meant to sympathise with vicious mass murderers. And the comedy doesn’t really get us past that.

If you're in or around the tech policy debate in the UK (and other places) you might be wondering what sovereign AI *actually* means, and whether it can make a meaningful difference.

Others have noted that this means foreign-born people are LESS likely than UK-born people to be in prison. What I want to note is that The Times is now referring to foreign-born UK citizens as ‘foreigners’. This includes Boris Johnson, Sir Mo Farah, Emma Watson, Rory Stewart and little old me.

Another must read from @samfr.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

Fascinating @financialtimes.com Big Read today on a cool but imperfect (expensive, dirty) way of reclaiming fresh water for the world’s arid zones. on.ft.com/4o7hyt9

Required reading samf.substack.com/p/britain-is...

He's one of Britain's richest men. So why does Asif Aziz's property company keep leasing London gift shops to overseas students based in abandoned offices or flytipped car parks — before vanishing without paying millions of pounds in taxes? www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-l...

My column in tomorrow’s paper: on the magical thinking that has emerged on net zero and what drives it:

Vaccination saves lives. The news a child has died of measles is shocking and so easily preventable. #VaccinesWork #Measles

Thanks - interesting piece. Surprised they don’t mention @trosenstiel.bsky.social who has been writing - sensibly - about this for longer than most ….

Meredith has always been a G, but it's still exceptionally weird and very refreshing hearing from a tech exec who can see through all of this AI bullshit for what it is at its foundation: a backdoor surveillance tool.

Lovely piece about The Blues from Erik Rittenberry poeticoutlaws.substack.com/p/chasing-th...

Here is a link to the full webinar on Journalism & Democratic Backsliding, featuring @jayrosen.bsky.social, NYU professor @sambrook.bsky.social, Cardiff professor and former BBC @panievsky.bsky.social, City Uni Pres Fellow From the Cambridge Disinformation Summit www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrAn...

Lovely piece from @arusbridger.bsky.social on Duncan Campbell and serious journalism www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...

Jeremy Bowen's long, measured, objective, but ultimately entirely clear and conclusive essay on Israeli war crimes. As Jonathan Sumption puts it: "These things make genocide the most plausible explanation for what is now happening." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Great question. It’s not enough to diagnose collapse, we need to build resilience. Here’s what “adapt” means in practice 🧵

A continuation... battellemedia.com/archives/202...

Interesting and useful!

“In 2020, according to ProPublica, at least eighteen billionaires filed tax returns so deftly assembled that they were eligible for pandemic stimulus checks. When Bezos was worth eighteen billion dollars, back in 2011, he qualified for a child tax credit.” Evan Osnos, in New Yorker (HT Helen Lewis)

The right has developed an infrastructure that provides frames and stories through which their audiences can interpret the world around them, as well as mechanisms for those folks to share their experiences… to shape the broader stories. theconversation.com/how-right-wi...

Chalk streams are rare, ancient ecosystems getting a second chance in Norfolk, through nature-based solutions! Local communities and TNC are re-wiggling rivers and launching the Norfolk Water Fund. “Re-wiggling” restores a stream while protecting biodiversity and supporting sustainable water use🏞️.

The media, climate change, and why we don’t need a “Joe Rogan of the left”… drilled.ghost.io/forget-the-j...

Boo fucking hoo. It's built on THEFT. "I don't know how I'd ask all those people or afford to pay for all their work." Then you DON'T GET TO HAVE IT. These would-be geniuses have convinced themselves that something in their miracle blah-blah machine is so inherently amazing rules don't apply.