I refer you back to this short thread: bsky.app/profile/tupp...

The first #Aras25 online political ads are out Who is trying to mimic Mamdani, who is in serious message testing mode, and who has very strong views about what you should really actually be angry about? www.thebriefing.ie/the-first-ar...

The first #Aras25 online political ads are out Who is trying to mimic Mamdani, who is in serious message testing mode, and who has very strong views about what you should really actually be angry about? www.thebriefing.ie/the-first-ar...

The US and UK have signed a Technology Prosperity Deal. But will it deliver public benefit or private profits? Is the UK an AI taker or an AI maker? @halcyene.bsky.social, our Economic and Social Policy Lead, outlines the challenges for the UK's approach. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Tomorrow's front page 📰 Is sharing this image a crime?

They’re not even trying to hide it any more

Liz Carolan: Charlie Kirk shooting was not driven by motive or ideology - just a desire for virality

I was on @newstalkfm.bsky.social this morning talking about the Charlie Kirk assassination, political polarisation & social media - with @antonsavage.bsky.social, Roderick O’Gorman & @westwingreport.bsky.social - you can listen back here www.newstalk.com/podcasts/the...

it’s early but it seems like maybe this is relevant again (wrote it last week fml)

Trying to get my head around memes engraved on the actual bulletin cases used in an assassination (if confirmed) We‘ve had years of violence as content creation (J6, attacking candidates on film) & as Joan says memes in eg Christchurch “manifesto” But this shit?

We need to treat social media as humanity's demented id - which is pretty much what it is - and stop feeling like everything on here is a thought out policy position that requires a response. Everyone on the internet is basically mad & drunk & has a real job/family somewhere they're neglecting.

#Aras25 will be one of the first votes under digital ad "bans" coming as companies try avoid the EU's new rules on Oct 10th What will campaigning look like? Does it matter when it feels like 1938? Featuring @clareodv.bsky.social & @worklesshard.bsky.social www.thebriefing.ie/campaigning-...

I love how Paul Krugman casually sends OOO notifications to half a million people

#Aras25 will be one of the first votes under digital ad "bans" coming as companies try avoid the EU's new rules on Oct 10th What will campaigning look like? Does it matter when it feels like 1938? Featuring @clareodv.bsky.social & @worklesshard.bsky.social www.thebriefing.ie/campaigning-...

all signs point to this being just an incredibly destabilizing moment. very very bad stuff. we're in a very dark place.

- you clean up that banksy? - sure did, your honour, leaving a perfect, permanent outline, imbuing the work with real fuckin gravitas while making its point better than the artist did himself just like you asked

Over on the newsletter: more background on why Musk's intervention in #Aras25 is profoundly stupid, and stupidly dangerous www.thebriefing.ie/musks-profou...

Over on the newsletter: more background on why Musk's intervention in #Aras25 is profoundly stupid, and stupidly dangerous www.thebriefing.ie/musks-profou...

Stupid: politicians and the public do not like McGregor; parties don't support rivals Dangerous: Musk is attacking a man with small children who had to evacuate their home due to death threats about 24 hours ago www.thebriefing.ie/musks-profou...

This is both profoundly stupid, and profoundly dangerous

The dignity of a state is a bit like knees in middle-age: you don’t realise just how damned important its smooth functioning was until it starts to creak.

We have a date - Oct 24th #Aras25 And I have a plan - 7 weeks, 14 briefings, all pretty short & with lots of recommended links If you are not a subscriber to thebriefing.ie now is a good time to do so (it‘s free) www.thebriefing.ie/seven-weeks-...

We have a date - Oct 24th #Aras25 And I have a plan - 7 weeks, 14 briefings, all pretty short & with lots of recommended links If you are not a subscriber to thebriefing.ie now is a good time to do so (it‘s free) www.thebriefing.ie/seven-weeks-...

RIP The Grand Stretch

Reading up ahead of doing the review of the Sunday papers on @rteone.rte.ie at 11am

"It is a famine we could have prevented.. food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel. It is a famine within a few hundred metres of food.. a preventable famine sustained by complicity" Tom Fletcher from the UN on famine being declared in Gaza City

Why is this Presidential Election so weird? I have theories... www.thebriefing.ie/why-is-this-...

Perhaps, one day, schoolkids will study this squalid little chapter in British terror-panic history. When they do, I hope these two headlines from today are printed side by side, with clear annotation of which individual faced more outrage and condemnation.

Sally Rooney risks committing a terrorist offence if she funds the Palestine Action group, the UK govt has warned. The award-winning author said she will donate her earnings from her books and BBC adaptations to support the group, which was recently proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK

I forgot about this for a while but the Bryce Elder "Sam Altman's kitchen" piece may be one of my favourite things I've read in business or tech history. www.ft.com/content/b180...

Great read 😁

Maybe that it's competition to be the spokesperson for our country - above the fray of party politics, a moral arbiter of sorts - and so a lot depends on how people see Ireland today and what a "best" version of Irishness looks like. How to we pick someone to help us feel proud of ourselves? V odd!

Why is this Presidential Election so weird? I have theories... www.thebriefing.ie/why-is-this-...

So is the Presidential Election campaign brutal or is it just that it attracts the naive? The Office is so genteel & the competition so thin it must look like a safe ring to throw your hat into A General feels higher stake - but there’s hundreds of candidates There’s nowhere to hide in #Aras25

So is the Presidential Election campaign brutal or is it just that it attracts the naive? The Office is so genteel & the competition so thin it must look like a safe ring to throw your hat into A General feels higher stake - but there’s hundreds of candidates There’s nowhere to hide in #Aras25

Presidential elections are always on the wild side and this one is on trend so far. Interesting few weeks ahead. The parties can't really let decisions slide much beyond early Sept, even just for practical reasons, mounting a national campaign takes a bit of planning and organisation.

Pretty wild that we’re +/- 10 weeks out from the Presidential elections and none of the 3 big parties have a candidate (And we don’t even have a date…)

Big calls ahead for FF, FG & SF. Parties can't allow elections to happen without their candidates in the fray. Voting is part habit, if supporters vote for a different party candidate at a presidental election, they might come back to the mother ship but they might not. #Aras2025

Oh it looks like we have a feed for #Aras25 content - you can add add this as a tab on Bluesky & dip in & out of the madness

Made the mistake of telling my 4yr old about Taylor’s new album - my life is now being asked every 10 mins if Taylor has sent it to my phone yet She also asked which songs Taylor was going to “throw away” to make room for the new ones because at this rate “her show would be all the day & all night”

This is one of those policies which the Irish system makes likely it could be overturned by voters just contacting their TDs (ideally, in person). No politician is vocally associated with Ireland’s support for breaking encryption. There are commercial forces which also oppose it.

The world is burning, wars are raging, fascism is rising; you are one of the richest people who has ever existed; what do you do?

Our new journal paper has hit the front pages and got wide coverage on the airwaves this morning. The paper critically assesses “temperature neutrality” as a basis for Ireland’s long-term climate target. We find it amounts to backsliding on climate ambition and locks in food system unfairness.

Wall to wall hacks sharing solemn “press freedom” posts whenever Donald Trump calls Chuck Blastoise of WBYN News a silly name - but multiple targeted strikes on the only ones documenting Gaza and it’s crickets. Shameful.

Five journalists were killed by a targeted Israeli airstrike on Sunday, bringing the total number of journalists killed since Oct. 7 to 186. They were Al Jazeera correspodents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera ops Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. cpj.org/2025/08/isra...

More than 200 journalists have now been killed by the IDF in Gaza. And so many journalists here haven’t expressed a single sliver of solidarity or outrage about it.

Prominent Al Jazeera journalist killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza

Now ask it who to bomb, or how long to send that person to prison, or who should get a job

Israel is storing recordings of Palestinians daily phone calls - millions of them - that they analyse to plan airstrikes / kill people - in Irish data centres Sweet Jesus www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...