Forget the Starmer vs Streeting melodrama. Instead listen to the one and only @neildegrassetyson.com speak to @dr-radha.bsky.social on the latest Intelligence Squared all about ALIENS. 🐔👽 open.spotify.com/episode/6RG8...

Don't forget what Reform promised the crypto industry after Farage took the cash: Farage....took an undisclosed £5mn personal gift from a crypto billionaire in 2024, months before pledging to slash tax and regulation on the digital assets industry if he becomes PM www.ft.com/content/6a56...

In normal times this would disqualify him from public office. In the algorithmic slop era none of his supporters will see/care about this story

Men are using Meta AI glasses to secretly film women at beaches, shops, on the street & on nights out. They then post these clips online where they receive a barrage of misogynistic abuse. I’m campaigning to make this behaviour an offence. Women deserve to feel safe in public spaces.

This kind of explicit gutter racism goes beyond what Buckley would have been willing to publish in his pro-Jim Crow days

BREAKING: “It is increasingly clear that as the world continues down this volatile path our long term national interest requires closer partnership with our allies in Europe and with the European Union.. Brexit did deep damage to our economy” Prime minister Keir Starmer 👏

NEW VIDEO: Why are sports owners suddenly so comfortable losing? Some blame tanking, some blame analytics. But an answer increasingly is private equity. www.youtube.com/watch?v=taaj...

Enjoyed speaking to ‘The Friends of Attention’ fighting back against the Trillion Dollar industry fracking our attention. Out now on @intelligence2.bsky.social: open.spotify.com/episode/4UVs...

The Beatles Anthology is so moving. Loved watching it over the Christmas break

Irish citizen Donna Hughes-Brown, who had been held by immigration authorities in the US for almost five months, has said it is fabulous to be free but she is still feeling a bit overwhelmed since her release last week

Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:

CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss pulled a 60 Minutes segment on allegations of abuses at an El Salvador detention center where the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants. n.pr/4pagOTD

It feels like in the last 12 months there has been an even more aggressive replacement of independent local businesses with private equity backed chains

US foreign policy also for sale in the Balkans: "The Maga push overturning US policy in the Balkans" giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

The lunatics are running the asylum. Spent last Friday at a conference on the Digital Dark Ages and have been working on a paper on agnotology in this realm specifically and now the antivax cranks in power literally changed the government website today.

I don’t want to seem out of touch but I don’t actually understand the economy anymore.

I could get back into catholicism if he keeps this up

Pope Leo absolutely cooking

Never forget that just a week ago, Ross Douthat and the NYTimes were asking if women ruined the workplace.

At a major "anti-hate" conference a few years ago I was on a panel where I lightly suggested big tech companies were faking their concerns about hate/misinfo. It didn't go over too well. But let the record show that once again I was right. They only care about money. www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Can you really fight extremism in a world of attention based ‘recommendation’ algorithms? If users only saw content from the other users they follow rather than constantly ‘recommended’ extreme content I wonder how politics would change overnight?

My colleague @thejohnsimpson.bsky.social has done a terrific deep dive into the financial links between US tech billionaires and Tommy Robinson Well worth a read observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

The owner of and absolute unquestionable algorithm controller of a preferred communications channel of the UK Government calling for violence and the overthrow of the Government. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

The newly ousted director of the CDC refused to fire top agency leaders or approve changes to vaccines from RFK Jr.’s hand-picked panel of advisers.

Four more top #CDC officials have submitted their resignation in the past few hours - Debra Houry (chief medical officer), Demere Daskalakis (director of NCIRD), Daniel Jernigan (director of NCEZID) + Jen Layden (director of OPHDST) www.nbcnews.com/health/healt... It is horrifying

“It’s safe to say that Trump does not have a single policymaking person who knows Russia and Ukraine advising him,” said Eric Rubin, a former career diplomat who served as US ambassador to Bulgaria during Trump’s first term. www.ft.com/content/89f3...

Dr. Michael Osterholm cuts to the chase on why cutting mRNA research funding is such a dangerous idea.

Genuine question - If there was a new pandemic tomorrow would the US government block the development of mRNA vaccines?

Despite the chaos, sport and entertainment continue to drive growth and social good: www.nytimes.com/athletic/653...

Very good substack from Jamie Bartlett about what Labour need to learn from Donald Trump. open.substack.com/pub/jamiejba...

Really enjoyed speaking to @joeydurso.bsky.social about his new book ‘More Than A Shirt’ and what football shirts can tell us about the world. @intelligence2.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/0lcc...

It’s no longer possible to hide behind ‘it’s complicated’ anymore. Keep talking about Kneecap but this is published by Haaretz. IDF Soldiers ordered to shoot starving civilians. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Tour dates for my book ‘This is for Everyone’ released today. Join me in London Sept 9th, Oxford Sept 10th or Edinburgh Sept 13th. More on US dates and the rest of the 🌍 soon. ‪‪ 🙏 @intelligence2.bsky.social @blackwells.bsky.social @portybooks.bsky.social linktr.ee/thisisforeve...

It's Triple Negative Breast Cancer Awareness month and in today's @irishexaminer.bsky.social this woman told me how, despite being an active, health focused, non-smoker, was diagnosed with the disease in her 40s. She encourages women to be aware www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/he...

We are #hiring. Come work on exciting live events as a producer at @intelligence2.bsky.social: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/41...

Full house listening and in discussion with @gideonrachman.bsky.social , Arkady Ostrovsky and Catherine Belton on the strongman phenomenon. Conversation focused on Putin and his enablers - organized by @intelligence2.bsky.social

"A top political columnist for The Washington Post resigned today, accusing Post chief executive and publisher Will Lewis of killing her column that criticized owner Jeff Bezos's drive to overhaul the opinion pages to focus on his libertarian priorities." @davidfolkenflik.bsky.social

Wow the first event of this series tonight is now SOLD OUT! What a way to start the series with @gideonrachman.bsky.social on the strongman phenomenon. PS you can still access the livestream on the Intelligence Squared website

Republicans in Congress are reportedly asking Musk’s permission to hold votes

🧵The intersection of the Musk & Putin agendas are coming into focus. Here's what I think is happening. I hope I'm wrong. Key to understand: 1. Trump=POTUS in Name Only (PINO), while Musk runs the US day to day. 2. Musk & Putin put T in office; many of his actions now are repayment of that debt.

In a chat w/Reason yesterday, in many places over the past year, Taibbi has tried to dismiss Russian interference, and to make concern seem hysterical by discrediting the people who pointed it out. To undermine the evidence, he implies dishonest people grossly exaggerated or even just made it up.

This is becoming a Matt Taibbi factcheck account… 🙃 A massive alt-media retcon has been happening re: Russia, which you are seeing reflected in the lies that Trump has begun to tell about Ukraine. The strategy is to discredit established facts, smear messengers, & create alternate realities. 1/4

He did it again

🧪Measles “is the thing we see first when public health starts to falter,” Ratner said recently from his office in New York City. www.latimes.com/science/stor...

Musk is promoting a digitally altered video of Ilhan Omar, which makes it seem like she appeared at an event that she did not attend. Also, it is not "literally" or figuratively "breaking the law" to advise someone of their legal rights, which is all Omar is doing in the video.

Ahead of the #AIActionSummit in Paris, my latest Substack is a reminder that technologies aren't neutral – they have a direction that can be steered toward public value creation or for the enrichment of a few powerful companies. Read and subscribe here ➡️ marianamazzucato.substack.com/p/ai-for-what

Helluva opening paragraph from @jillfilipovic.bsky.social in this week’s New Statesman

Deep

A CSO survey of 25-year-olds has found that more than 62% were living with parents for mostly financial reasons