MARINERA (9230880) just made a sudden southbound turn at 11:26 UTC at 60.9386, -16.37014. Decelerated from 9kn to 8kn speed.

Grok created an image of a descendent of Holocaust survivors, in a striped bikini outside Auschwitz and is making masses of Nazi imagery. Bella Wallersteiner described the images generated of her as a "profound violation" that left her feeling powerless and unsafe. www.thetimes.com/article/3605...

I am extremely confused as to why the UK government and police are saying Grok’s mass-scale CSAM generation is an issue for Ofcom. This isn’t about X failing to moderate CSAM, which is an Online Safety Act issue. It is about the company and its technology being actively involved in its generation.

Full White House statement to the BBC:

If you are a lawyer/legal researcher familiar with UK law in this area pls do drop me a line on this

Here's another flaw in X's system. If you report an account like I did last night for generating nude or sexualised images of children, it will remove the account. It won't remove all of Grok's replies to that person, so some of the images generated remain online.

I have a hunch that if you or I were running a website doing this the "urgent contact" would involve door rams and handcuffs so I struggle to see why it can't be slightly more pugnacious than this.

In addition to the Ofcom inquiry as to what the platform is doing to prevent its own production of the unlawful material, there should be a dedicated team making arrrests + charges + a comms campaign about that being unlawful, arrestable and chargeable

Writing this I had to look through Grok's mentions. Earlier I counted around 8 requests PER MINUTE featuring "bikini" and "her". Thousands of women and girls stripped each day. I found users stripping dozens of women per hour, from female celebrities to gym selfies. www.thetimes.com/uk/technolog...

WaPo today:

APNewsAlert: CARACAS, #Venezuela (AP) — No visible signs yet that US is running Venezuela after Trump claims, as country's security forces control key sites.

"When contacted by Reuters for comment by email, xAI replied with the message 'Legacy Media Lies'."

Vinted, never change

NEW When should social media posts have legal consequences? Comparing and contrasting the cases of Lucy Connolly and Alaa Abd El-Fattah By me, at @newstatesman1913.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

At some point we have to deal with how online political subcultures have long been toxic, antagonistic spaces where trivialising violence got clicks and acclaim; and that a worrying number of people in those spaces used language that was unacceptable in anywhere else they frequented, on or offline.

Zelensky lands in Miami. Not a single US official is on hand to greet him. In the language of diplomacy this send an unequivocal message of coldness and hostility. Compare it with the lavish pomp and red carpet shown to Putin when he landed in Alaska a few weeks ago.

Over on the Other Place, some lovely people have reposted my piece on Jews being gunned down on Bondi Beach. And I am tagged in comments justifying the attack by accusing Israel of genocide. Same on YouTube. I just don't think this would happen for an attack on any other ethnic or religious group

BREAKING: Australian police say the two gunmen involved in the Bondi shooting were a father and son. - A 50 year-old who had a licence for 6 firearms and is now dead. - His 24 year-old son remains in hospital in a critical but stable condition.

Incredible footage out of Australia, confirmed by NEWS AU, of a brave bystander neutralizing one of the terrorists in the Bondi Beach attack which took place during a Hanukkah gathering. Australian authorities say multiple people have been killed. At least two suspects are in custody.

Neighbours of the Hong Kong activist Carmen Lau were sent pornographic deepfakes of her to discredit her. Other Hong Kong democracy activists say China uses misogyny, sexual harassment and worse as a tool to silence them. My story today. www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

Quite breathtaking story - military grade drones at Dublin airport which flew on the path Zelensky's plane took. The drones reached the flight path of his plane exactly the time it should have been there, but just missed it because Zelensky arrived ahead of schedule:

thought this was an Onion headline

So my view is that the tax is good policy. There will be inefficiencies and unfairnesses, as with all taxes, but the basic concept is a good one. I wrote more about that in our Budget round-up: taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/11/26/t...

Why we can't have nice things in Britain: Hairdresser teams up with wine importer to offer tastings while you have a trim, applies for alcohol license. Council objects because its a "high impact area" (bustling affluent shopping district and tourist attraction). www.theargus.co.uk/news/2565512...

Spot on. The terms of the plan 2 loan are utterly usurious. Notably the budget has not frozen just the threshold for repayments at a marginal rate of 9%, dragging more and more graduates into it, but it also freezes the interest of those loans which is as much as 6.2%! Which is ridiculous!!

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

A lot of people didn’t like the Washington Post journalist who was tortured and dismembered with a bone saw for writing critically about the man sitting next to me

I've now finished the screw-turning and for the first time in my life have a matching pair of legs (one, albeit, still broken) 🥳 Happy Straight Leg Day to me!

Back home from hospital after having leg #2 reconstructed. Modern medicine is incredible. Tomorrow I start screw-turning on my fixator to pull the bone straight. I now have an app on my phone that includes a 3d model of my leg, animated to show how much straighter it is becoming:

Some good news. London is meeting legal limits for toxic NO2 pollution for the first time – almost 200 years earlier than predicted – following the Mayor’s "world leading air pollution policies," City Hall announces. The Ultra Low Emissions Zone - and similar policies - really do work.

On Saturday, 52 people crossed the Channel in a single boat. Of them, only one was prosecuted for entering the UK illegally. Why? He was seen for a single minute with his hand on the boat's tiller. My dispatch from the Kent courts on the migration frontline www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

Farage asked on @lbc.co.uk whether he agreed with on the unproven link between paracetamol and autism “I have no idea... We were told thalidomide was a v safe drug and it isn’t. who knows. I don’t know, you don’t know…when it comes to science I don’t side with anybody. It’s never settled.”

Meanwhile, back in the world of facts. wmo.int/publication-...

I love this project

Vertical rows are the agrivoltaic winner! “The vertical panels produce slightly less electricity—but with higher value, as generation peaks coincide with morning and late afternoon demand…The crops don't seem to mind the presence of solar panels and they like the wind protection they provide.”

I've seen this sentiment around a bit today so a few notes from my reporting (thread): - The person in question is Indian. He may have made an asylum claim, but has only a 2% chance of it being granted (and that rate is dropping as more claims are processed)

'don't kick Israel out of Eurovision, the arts aren't political' variety.com/2025/film/gl...

For years, the French government had maintained that intercepting boats at sea was illegal and dangerous. But in the Indian Ocean, they've been doing just that, costing dozens of lives. If these tactics were used in the Channel, it would risk hundreds of lives. www.thetimes.com/article/46f9...

NEW: French police have caused the deaths of dozens of people by intercepting small boats at sea These violent tactics are deployed now off the French overseas island of Mayotte Under pressure from the UK, France now plans to start intercepting boats in the Channel This is where that could lead ⬇️

Do you walk near/swim in/sail on bodies of water? You could help map the world's microplastics in a pioneering new "CSI for the Ocean" project. I met the scientists behind it in Scotland, where they were sleuthing for plastic among the otters, seals and sharks. www.thetimes.com/article/2854...

Eesh. Notts Reform leadership blacklisting both the local paper and the local democracy scheme that covers the council for the BBC. Don’t like this at all www.nottinghampost.com/news/news-op...

Under the UK's one in, one out deal asylum seekers can apply to come safely. But what happens while they wait? Police raids, wildfires, no food or sanitation in Grande-Synthe. One Afghan told me: "It will damage our minds to wait & wait... why would we stay here?" www.thetimes.com/world/europe...

The Labour government hopes the 'one in, one out' deal will stem the boats and give them an edge over Reform. For those sent back, we will take asylum seekers safely from France. But in France, I met people who applied to come, heard nothing, and so boarded a boat www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Letter of the day (in the Times)

The victim-blaming logic for ChatGPT and related “AI” tools has already been established. When the technology puts people in danger, even deadly danger, folks will say it’s the user’s fault for trusting the technology—even as the media, the industry, workplaces and even schools encourage that trust

How are children raised on ChatGPT supposed to understand that it’s not trustworthy? How are people told it’s “artificial intelligence” supposed to believe it’s not intelligent? When your boss forces you to use it, how is it your fault for being susceptible to its intentionally manipulative design?

This is such a good explanation of why different generations see past each other on money: martinrobbins.substack.com/p/waspinomic...

The most fun a girl can have reporting. With a particular shoutout to this wee legend: www.thetimes.com/sport/footba...