an important read for at least 2 reasons: 1. shows how big tech operates on intuitions and vibes and not rigorous research 2. this is a masterpiece in how to breakdown complex scientific concepts in simple language and elegant pros that captivate the lay reader taranis.ie/datacenters-...

So glad we're hosting this again. I'll also be speaking about the Get the Vote Out campaign for our branch's local dispute on academic freedom around Palestine, protection of staff, divestment from genocide and essential governance reform at KCL. Join us!

New XCEPT report by Hilina Berhanu Degefa on women’s participation in Ethiopia’s ethnonational armed groups. Completed through the Women Researchers Fellowship in the X-Border Local Research Network, where RVI is a core partner. Read here: tinyurl.com/w8dupaah

🚨🚨 Calling on all KCL UCU members: TODAY is the last ⭐️safe day⭐️ to post your ballots for both national and local disputes! VOTE today, VOTE yes and put them in the POST!! 📦 📦 ➡️ ALSO if your ballot papers arrive later than today please contact us as we can deliver in person on Friday afternoon 💫💫

🗣️🗣️How is the UCU National ballot connected to and distinct from KCL UCU’s local ballot? An explainer from @jamiewoodcock.com KCL UCU’s branch chair ⬇️

#wearekcl #wearetheuniversity

‘Shared values?’ This is meaningless when your university invests in genocide. VOTE in our local ballot for Palestine and against this wilful silence against oppression www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/affi... ➡️ kcl.web.ucu.org.uk

Dusk-to-Dawn curfew in place in Tanzania as protests continue following the national election yesterday. Incumbent Samia Suluhu is accused of intimidation and arbitrary arrests of leading opposition figures, including Chadema leader Tundu Lissu who is charged with treason and was not on the ballot.

Here we go! It's taken a lot of work by the branch to get to this ballot. Palestine IS a workplace issue. ESPECIALLY in our workplace. Local ballot papers drop next week. #WeAreKCL #FreePalestine

“Well-meaning” people are using machine translation to write Wikipedia articles in languages that they don’t speak themselves, accelerating the degeneration in quality of the web corpus for several languages with relatively few native speakers. www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/25/1...

Our Somali language gen AI event follows the exciting #SomaliWeek 'Tech for Growth: Somali Businesses in Action' session (in the same venue). Join for both! www.kayd.org/all-events/e...

Looking forward to our #SomaliWeek event on Saturday, where we'll be talking about our collaboration with AGA on the Somali AI Lexicon, and the implications of gen AI on Afka Soomaaliga www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/generative...

Two people in my extended circle are on the Global Sumud Flotilla, aiming to break the siege on Gaza. They are asking us all for increased vigilance as the flotilla enters the high risk zone. You can follow the progress of the flotilla at www.globalsumudflotilla.org/live

Busy @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social picket lines this morning at Edinburgh University with staff striking to defend jobs and oppose the biggest cuts seen in Scottish higher education #SaveHE #NoCompulsoryRedundancies #StopTheCuts

this!

“I’m not sure I want to give way to the right” From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the main association of experts on genocide and mass violence, has just passed a resolution declaring that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. genocidescholars.org/wp-content/u...

Journalists in London have held a vigil for their Palestinian colleagues murdered by Israel in Gaza. The vigil was organised by the London Freelance Branch of the NUJ

Irish Times front page today. Tried to write instead of just screaming. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

Slow clap for the headline

📢 We’re hiring a Lecturer in Computational Humanities Education (Academic Education Pathway). 📔 Contract: Full-time, indefinite contract 🗓 Apply by: 25 August 2025 Full details here: my.corehr.com/pls/kclrecru... #DigitalHumanities #AcademicJobs #Hiring

We've written to KCL Management urging them to urgently lobby UK Government to enable safe passage for Chevening Scholarship students from Gaza to the UK. Considering the level of institutional complicity that KCL has with the genocide, it's really the LEAST they can do. See our statement below.👇

An open letter to KCL management, condemning punitive misconduct disciplinaries against Palestine Encampment students, is currently circulating with 250+ signatories. We copy the text of the letter ⬇️

ICYMI: our teach-in at parliament - 'When the only journalists are being slaughtered' report Thanks to our sponsor @johnmcdonnellmp.bsky.social and speakers @rosesrebellion.bsky.social @bendepear.bsky.social @petechonka.bsky.social @Mariam_Elsayeh, Menna Hijazi. Sharp insights 👇

If you haven't already, do have a look at @petechonka.bsky.social's recent RVI report, 'Digital Governance and Security in the Horn of Africa', which looks at digital finance & social media in #Somalia, #Ethiopia & #Kenya. In-depth research and highly topical.

Results are now in on our consultative e-ballot on academic freedom and staff safeguarding ➡️ we PASSED the threshold for a valid result with 🌟91% 🌟sharing our concern that management is not doing enough to protect us and our rights kcl.web.ucu.org.uk/2025/06/11/c...

Difficult to express how I feel about those in our politics and media who are more concerned about what some rapper said at Glastonbury than fact that, as a matter of deliberate policy, the Israeli government is paying mercenaries to murder starving civilians for fun. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Over the last year, your colleagues, comrades and friends at KCL have been harassed for defending Palestinian rights, upholding academic freedom and union activism. THIS is why we are balloting members NOW. But what exactly has been happening?

🇵🇸 ✊ Yesterday at our KCL UCU General Meeting members voted in favour of 2️⃣ motions calling for ⭐️ a consultative ballot on possible industrial action to protect academic freedom; and ⭐️reaffirming our commitment to campaigning for KCL to divest from genocide. Full wording ⬇️

"We were excited to have a panel accepted on the role of technology in genocide in Gaza at this year’s Computers, Privacy & Data Protection (CPDP) conference in Brussels. However, CPDP then requested that Access Now & others remove the word “genocide” from panel titles & descriptions. We declined."

📢 The next TUC-sponsored Workplace Day of Action for Palestine is this Thursday 15 May (12.30pm) on Nakba Day. KCL UCU will hold a rally outside the Strand Building. Join us to stand for justice in Palestine 📢https://images.app.goo.gl/nJRNV3yxKYpfWgUq7

KCL UCU sends its solidarity to the students who have, since Monday evening, re-occupied King’s Strand campus quad to protest our university’s continued complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and oppression of the Palestinian people. Our full statement ➡️ docs.google.com/document/d/1...

New ICRC statement #Gaza

🗣️🗣️Our next KCL UCU General Meeting is happening ⭐️TOMORROW 30 May 1-3pm ⭐️ with a pre-meet 1-1.30 for people who have not been to a General Meeting before. Please do come along, online on Teams or in person. The more the merrier!🗣️🗣️

Event: Hands off our universities // Defend campus protest // Solidarity with Gaza - 1 May ucw4palestine.org/2025/04/21/e... via @UCW4Pal

A reminder for our members that UCU National Congress is taking place May 24-26 and 4 delegates are attending from our branch to represent the positions of the branch. Please contact us re: motions to debate at our next branch meeting on April 30 ➡️

I’ve been wanting to write this for a while. So I finally did.

✨jobs✨ 20 AI+ Academic Fellowships - including for arts, humanities and social researchers: www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/role/ki...

At least 27 killed in Israeli bombing of shelter in Gaza City, rescuers say

Discusses some important (I think) trends in the Horn of Africa around conflict, mobile money, influencers, state digital governance moves, and problems with social media content moderation by global platforms.

'Ethiopia's Red Sea Politics: Corridors, Ports & Security in the Horn of Africa' My latest research paper published by @rvinews.bsky.social & #XCEPT. riftvalley.net/publication/...

Just to remind you that a Palestinian student at Manchester University in the UK has also been facing deportation proceedings over the last year because of comments she made at a rally that allegedly “incited terrorism”. The only difference between the US and the UK was that she was given notice.

There is nothing crazy about this. This horrific video epitomizes the logic of current meme-fascism: it's a colonization of the imagination that precedes and aestheticizes real neo-imperialist violence, dressed up in the glossy looks of stock imagery, influencer content and online scamming 1/

🎭 How is bias reproduced in text-to-image generative AI models? Join Dr. Stephanie Diepeveen for a public talk on Power, Representation & GenAI. 📅 26 February | 5PM 📍 King’s College London | Free event 🔗 Sign up: www.tickettailor.com/events/digit... #AI #GenerativeAI #digitalmedia

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says one of its ambulances has been hit by Israeli sniper fire in the Tal as-Sultan area, west of Rafah in southern Gaza. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/bxh1fn

Our friends at Notes from Below have just launched 'Workers' Inquiry', a new podcast series about work, struggle and revolution. Each episode, contributors to NfB share their experience of work, their analysis of their workplace, and how they think we can build our collective power as a class.

Welcome to KCL UCU's new Bluesky account. This is part of our new social media strategy, voted for by our members, to align our union values with our use of social media platforms. Please join us here for updates on our campaigns about equality, casualisation, workload and international solidarity.

Here we go, something I've been drafting for a long, long time: how the US-centric approach to video games and their history / culture basically gaslights us who come from other realities: felipepepe.medium.com/the-gentrifi... AKA, why LAN Houses, PokéTibia & Bomba Patch rule.

New article w/ Mahad Wasuge and Gayatri Sahgal out now. Our argument: #MobileMoney in #Somalia is hugely useful innovation. But when this is ONLY option for poor/exploited groups, this raises issues. Big impact on political economy of state reconstruction too academic.oup.com/ia/article/1...