Now that it is official US policy to promote regime change in Europe and to dismantle the EU I wonder if we will take sovereignty over tech more seriously

Ed Davey: "Quite apart from the irony of President Trump accusing others of trampling on basic principles of democracy, it repeats far right tropes of civilisational erasure, and threatens that the US Government will cultivate resistance in Europe."

Either this is satire that has gone totally over my head, or fonts are woke now. https://journa.host/@w7voa/115692881477036716

🇬🇧 🇺🇸 WATCH — @mrjamesob.bsky.social: “I’m going to say this slowly… The President of The United States of America has sided with Putin against the United Kingdom. He has put the whole of Europe in the crosshairs.”

If you think Paramount is just trying to buy Warner Brothers so Ellison can stop CNN from criticizing Trump… you’re right! www.wsj.com/business/med...

Given a) Farage's past; b) the expanding story about Russia and former MEPs; and c) media enthusiasm for "what influence is being bought?" questions, if anyone to left of Mussolini is gifted so much as a cup of sugar, why is Reform facing no such questions about Friday's £9m crypto-bro donation?~AA

11. It’s not just that people are wasting their time. "Population concern” also distracts people from things we *can* change. And, in many cases, transfers blame for the huge consumption impacts of wealthy people to Black and Brown people in poorer nations. At worst it’s straight-up racism. 11/12

no story about elon musk or his companies is complete without reference to both his overt white nationalist agitation, or his willingness to put that rhetoric into action by gleefully consigning countless thousands of people of color to death while running DOGE

Kilauea is putting on a spectacular show right now. Huge gouts of lava spewing high into the air. The USGS has several live cameras watching it and camera 3 was taken out by the lava fall. If you scrub back in time you can watch as the rain of molten rock creeps forward and “Pompeiis” the camera […]

I don't remember where I found this, but it still makes me laugh every time. #dadjokes

So Reform just took a £9 million donation from a cryptocurrency backer based in Thailand. Which of course will have no influence of the party’s priorities. Why are donations of that size to political parties even legal? […]

Or maybe diagnosis is at last catching up with the crises so many have been enduring, which have for so long been minimised, dismissed or ignored. share.google/1aKjHRJ596x6...

I wish more people were aware of this. Considering the scale of the threat, the media's near-silence is both remarkable and culpable. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

One of the reasons servicemembers, from admirals and generals to the greenest private, should know “don’t follow illegal orders” is that this administration is a goulash of dishonorable character flaws like cowardice and dishonesty. There is no bus under which these pissants will not throw you.

People do not use information to determine their social identities; they use their social identities to determine what counts as information. The climate fight is, and has always been, an identity fight. Gonna talk with @samuel-bagg.bsky.social about this soon.

Riding the Elizabeth Line to travel 25km from the west side of London to the east. 30 minutes as opposed to over a hour by car, and no hassle with parking. Public transport is ace. #urbanism

The main reason our of many why the UK is in the hole it is in right now. https://wandering.shop/@cstross/115626990135691434

This is such a profoundly shitty move by OpenAI, it shows what an ethical cesspit of a company they are. I don’t care if their chat bot works as advertised or not, damned if I’d use it after this. https://mastodon.social/@jwz/115617653609362687

Petition - Call a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy "We are concerned about reported efforts from Russia to influence democracy in the US, UK, Europe and elsewhere. We believe we must establish the depth and breadth of possible Russian influence campaigns in the […]

This is how you do it people. I feel like I could have written this article, as it is extremely detailed as to all of the valid reasons why they would want to ban such content from being associated with Nature. Every journalistic & creative outlet you follow should be publishing something like […]

🚨 BREXIT BUDGET🚨 "And Finally, Madam Deputy speaker, we are ramping up sanctions on Russia and we are freezing known Russian assets." "But let me be clear. I don't actually mean the Honourable Member for Clacton."

🏦Bank of England business surveys estimates that Brexit has reduced UK GDP by 6%-8%. 📊For reference, a GDP that was 7 per cent higher would give £77 billion extra a year to the chancellor. More than half of the 2024-25 budget deficit of £137 billion. https://bit.ly/3MpIdmA

As I was saying. No major media outlet seems interested in saying even the blindingly obvious. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/nov/25/rutger-bregman-accuses-bbc-of-censoring-his-reith-lecture-on-trump

BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. 🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states. This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺

This one hits home. We are at four years. https://me.ns.ci/@xkcdbot/115606765253664896

UK residents, can you manage another petition? This one goes to the heart of our democracy, such as it is. We need a proper enquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy. #Reform #Conservatives #Labour #Russia #democracy #voting #uk#voting#democracy#russia#labour#conservatives#reforms://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/744215

Excellent nerd humour. #Programming https://mathstodon.xyz/@dougmerritt/115596707083538102

Holy Mary full of grace, punch that devil in the face. book of hours ('The De Brailes Hours’), Oxford ca. 1240. BL, Add 49999, fol. 40v. #medieval #medievalart

I just filled out the UK Government's consultation on the proposed changes to settlement status (immigration). If you live in the UK, I encourage you to do the same. Be warned: there is a lot of double-speak in this consultation. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/earned-settlement

PSA to anyone who uses Gmail! "Reportedly, Google has recently started automatically opting users in to allow Gmail to access all private messages and attachments for training its AI models. This means your emails could be analyzed to improve Google’s AI assistants, like Smart Compose or […]

Listening to Killing In The Name Of, Tommy Morello couldn’t have been more correct.

Hi! Today is my first official day as the Executive Director of Mastodon, replacing @[email protected] as CEO. I joined the Mastodon team more than 5 years ago, mostly working for Mastodon in the evenings on top of a 120% day job. I was the driving force behind the incorporation of the […]

@pimlicat.bsky.social: "Multiple studies show that ramping up ever-harsher rhetoric on immigration and asylum never wins over Reform-curious voters. The government would be wiser to make the case for the international institutions and protections we all depend on.” https://bit.ly/49YBJVD

📱 "The fundamental problem is that most of the means of communication are owned by the very rich." 🔇 "Like the kings and empire-builders of the past, they use their platforms to project the claims that suit them and suppress the claims that don’t." https://bit.ly/49jRoi1

Holy Shit, #valve did a product launch in 2025 and did not mention AI a single fucking time. So refreshing.

This is what many of us have been saying. Part 3 of the Planning & Infrastructure Bill is based on a myth: that we don't have enough homes because wildlife and green spaces are protected. It will solve nothing, and inflict terrible harm on our remaining ecosystems www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." Malcolm X. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"A new investigation of Elon #Musk’s X by Sky News found that every account set up by reporters, 'no matter their political orientation, was fed a glut of rightwing content', much of which was extreme. The experts it consulted believe this pattern could have resulted only from an algorithm […]

If ChatGPT *were* a person with rights of personhood, they would be indicted for second-degree manslaughter. But since they’re not, I’ll gladly take Sam Altman instead. I have been looking at the latest slate of lawsuits related to ChatGPT-induced psychosis leading to death, and it is grim […]

Chancellor Reeves is half right. Again. She’s removing energy efficiency levies off electricity bills. Yay. It’s a public good for a wide range of reasons, so should be funded through general taxation. However restricting subsides for heat pumps is dumb. She doesn’t seem to understand learning […]

The irony of Danny Kruger accusing the BBC of left-wing bias when Reform UK - with just 5 MPs - gets more airtime than the Liberal Democrats, who have 72 MPs. The BBC doesn't have a left-wing bias.

Climate breakdown is driven by a storm of lies. This lying is systemic, funded and coordinated, and operates across almost all media, old and new. This week's column argues that we cannot fight the climate crisis without also fighting the epistemic crisis. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I am hiring 4 postdoctoral researchers for up to 4 years each. Topics include ice sheet reconstruction, GIA, spatial stats, and satellite geodesy. Based in Tasmania. All details are here: careers.utas.edu.au/en/listing/ with titles below I am also recruiting multiple PhD students (see below) 1/n

As much as I’m dismayed by PM Starmer’s performance, Wes Streeting would be far worse. FFS. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/nov/12/wes-streeting-denies-plotting-oust-keir-starmer-prime-minister

SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten. "I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA

Yes, absolutely there is an impartiality crisis at the BBC. But it's not the one the billionaire media insists it is. novaramedia.com/2025/06/16/b...

Panorama made a stupid editing mistake. But compare this to the deliberate and systemic attempt, sustained across years, to ensure that BBC output aligns ever more closely to the demands of economic power. Against your straw of bias, I raise you a haystack.

Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …

About AI.. No not that AI. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI), or bird flu, is hitting our wildlife hard again and the winter hasn't yet started. I've heard reports from various places in Greater Manchester about deaths from (mainly) swans and geese. If you see a sick or dead bird, don't […]

1. In the wake on Mamdani’s win, we’ll see a lot more far right anti-urban sentiment. Here’s a thread on its roots and evolution. The idea that the city is evil and corrupt, and the countryside innocent and pure, goes back a long way: to Theocritus in Alexandria, and to the Old Testament. 🧵