The Trump administration claims they will oversee Iran "destroying" or removing its entire supply of enriched uranium –after letting IAEA inspectors in– but finding it all means searching in facilities the US bombed last June. My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Temperatures in France already surpassing worst case scenario predictions for August 2050: yesterday was the hottest day on record. We are sleepwalking through the impacts of climate change worldwide.

The projections that the US could take the Strait of Hormuz by force, the mention of Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords (never mind what the Saudis actually say every single time on this)– this man lives in a fantasy world.

1. UK government proposes sweeping new laws to regulate the Internet 2. Experts warn the powers are badly-defined, technologically unfeasible and will be difficult to enforce 3. Government passes them anyway 4. Enforcement turns out to be hard 5. Government proposes more new laws

So glad that Luqman Saeed - an academic at Ulster University - has written this piece about the Belfast riots. I hope I could write this clearly and perceptively were I under similar pressure right now. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

The planned gas-fired capacity **JUST FOR DATA CENTRE ON-SITE USE** in the US is the same as *all* planned gas capacity in India, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea and China *combined*.

Our statement on the UK gov't's demand that all content on all devices sold or used in the UK be scanned, on the presumption of nudity, using a dystopian combination of age verification & content scanning. This proposal will not safeguard children. It endangers us all. signal.org/blog/pdfs/20...

NEW: In February, I visited Raw Farm. You may have heard of it. RFK Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow are customers. It supplies raw dairy products to 500 stores nationwide. And regulators have linked it to over a dozen recalls and outbreaks that have made hundreds sick. 🧵👇

Trump claims he's "calling all the shots" on Iran. Netanyahu's choices show otherwise. My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Why destroy only one newsroom when you can do it to two?

Devastating news from Egypt where activist and poet Ahmed Douma, only just released from prison in August 2023 after serving nearly 10 years behind bars, has been sentenced to a new one year term on spreading false news charges (Case 4894/2026). The cycle of injustice continues.

“New management has instructed me to insert falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story”- also the mention of certain politicians choosing their interviewees, a reference to Benjamin Netanyahu.

Because everyone knows, the surest way to solve a problem is to stop measuring it

SCOOP: The Pentagon has banned journalists from its press office, designating it a classified space. The change creates a new barrier between journalists and the public affairs officers who have traditionally answered their questions. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Reminder that Bari and Nick trading broadcast dollars for TikTok negative pennies will not work and @lopatto.bsky.social laid it out as clearly as possible -- gift link! www.theverge.com/business/793...

Taps the sign:

APNewsAlert: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — US military says it launched airstrikes on Iranian radar and drone sites after Tehran shot down MQ-1 Predator drone.

Other than the obvious harm here, the worst part is this was not difficult to predict: Musk openly interfered in German elections last year by vocally supporting the far-right AfD. It prompted outrage in Germany, but evidently nothing that would stop him from repeating the same tactics in the UK.

NEW: Xinjiang has the highest detention capacity in the world, according to FT analysis - enough space for almost 1 in 40 people in the region - more than five years after the Chinese govt announced the camps had closed.

How lucky for the correspondents of the most successful TV news show in history that Nick Bilton is taking the "unutilized" brand "into the modern age" www.wsj.com/business/med...

Breaking news: Trump administration officials have pressed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to design a $250 bill featuring the president’s portrait, in what would be the first appearance of a living person on U.S. currency in more than 150 years.

Trump threatening to veto a deal with Iran if countries including Saudi Arabia refuse to normalise relations with Israel, even though the Saudis have clearly stated their opposition to this for years, Qatar and others have never entertained the idea. The "art of the deal" in action here...

EXCL: Peter Mandelson’s associations with senior figures in China, Russia and Israel were among concerns raised by the UK’s vetting agency when it concluded he should be denied clearance, sources tell Paul Lewis, me & @direthoughts.com www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Tony Blair has timed his assault on Labour’s climate policy perfectly. Who needs net zero? Everything is fine.

This is how you engage readers on stories about AI

As I recently wrote, the Trump administration can put together a framework, but it struggles to ink a comprehensive deal. Gaza is an example. Iran may prove the same: politi.co/4df84sC

You don't usually rely on Iran's Fars News Agency for unvarnished truth-telling, but we can make an exception in this case.

The deal - to reopen a waterway that was open before - is imminent but also Tasnim and other Iranian news outlets tied to the IRGC say major gaps remain. All sounding quite familiar.

As Putin again rains death and destruction down on Kyiv, we’re publishing an investigation, based on newly leaked documents, into Russia’s influence operations in Europe. 👇 www.occrp.org/en/investiga...

The head of the FBI…has a personal merch website? Who is buying Kash Patel merch?

A Turkish court today removed the head of the country's main opposition party, clearing the way for his predecessor to return. His predecessor already lost to Erdoğan in an election in 2023 – and is viewed as a far more convenient opposition leader for the Turkish president.

If Burnham doesn’t understand the size of the rake he’s stepping on here, that progressives desperately need a narrative about immigration that isn’t cherry-picked from the far right, then his judgement is…more than questionable. This is literally the task here. What an obvious mistake.

Two fun stories to view side-by-side: - An Australian psychiatrist is refusing patients that don't agree to the use of an AI scribe - A new Canadian study finding AI scribes have a shockingly high failure rate www.theguardian.com/australia-ne... www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/0...

The media empire built by former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government is swiftly unravelling following an election last month ​that abruptly ended his rule... Senior figures at some of the most prominent pro-Orban ‌outlets have been pushed out. www.reuters.com/business/med...

If you want to know how and why we've ended up in a situation where tens of thousands of people rally in support of a far-right influencer, backed by wealthy North American fascists, I just wrote a book about it. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...

Tens of thousands of protestors are expected to descend on London tomorrow for a far-right rally dubbed “Unite the Kingdom”. In reality, the “kingdom” has rarely felt more divided. We're working to expose the hate economy – and we need your help

Almost every week I think about the end of my podcast with @aidanwalker.bsky.social about where this all ends... www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...

"The new vaping guidance highlights Mr. Trump’s willingness to use his executive authority to prioritize the causes of major corporate donors over public health concerns, taxpayer interests and the judgment of experts, sometimes including those in his own administration."

“The best thing that can be said about this project is that at least we know Jeff Bezos is not buying views on YouTube, which is a common practice for vanity venture capitalist podcasts that no one wants to watch or listen to.”

NEW: The NYT sent a firm email to freelancers today warning that "contributors must not submit any material for publication that contains content generated, modified or enhanced" by generative AI. The "reminder" notably follows a string of AI incidents at the paper: futurism.com/artificial-i...

Insight on what it takes to run an independent outlet or podcast in the current media landscape - also listen to Hyperfixed! I’m still thinking about the passionfruit episode (Tl:dr- get it together America)

Russia's federal government has announced that it's shutting down *all* mobile Internet service in Moscow on May 9 during Victory Day — even text messaging & access to state-approved white-listed online resources. An extreme measure to guard against feared Ukrainian attacks. t.me/vedomosti/77...

This was a hard story to report. Newborns who don’t get a vitamin K shot are 81 times more likely to develop a condition where they bleed uncontrollably. But more and more families are declining the shot. And babies are dying. www.propublica.org/article/more...

Chillingly, the law this protest law is based on was passed in 2011 by Bashar Al Assad.

Deserved congratulations to @jmalsin.bsky.social + a team of many talented people (special shoutout to Asmaa Al Omar who is not yet on BlueSky) for being Pulitzer finalists for this important reporting on the aftermath of the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.

‘Go inside, he will kill you’: Israeli militants step up West Bank school attacks Education is being targeted across Palestine, with the murder of 14-year-old Aws al-Naasan only the latest in a spree of violence www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

““China has made information a theatre of war, and I have a responsibility to fight in the theatre that China has delineated,” he says.” Fascinating profile.