The best-informed experts are warning loud and clear and often that AI can wreak havoc in our societies and on our species, and yet just about nobody is heeding the threat. Listen here to one of the very few who is trying to act www.youtube.com/live/bpP_ZoI...

If you're interested in power and abuse of power and Rupert Murdoch, you might be interested in this documentary www.itv.com/watch/the-re...

Elon Musk, "These lovely small towns in England, Scotland and Ireland, they've been living their lives quietly. They're like hobbits" "And so one day, 1,000 people show up in your village of 500 and start raping the kids" "This has now happened, God knows how many times in Britain"

This very revealing story is not getting nearly enough attention - At least 135 mutilated bodies of Palestinians had been held at notorious Israeli jail, say Gaza officials www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

This is highly revealing about the power play behind what is happening in Gaza, especially on the increasingly alarming influence of Larry Ellison. tinyurl.com/46t5m6en

A very strong launch by the new independent news outfit www.thenerve.news - more energy and revelation in one issue than the dead-souled Fleet Street Sundays have managed in months.

“.. Tesla's new car sales in April fell by 80.7% in Sweden, national data showed on Friday, a day after Denmark recorded a 67.2% drop .. and France reported a 59.4% fall, its fourth straight month of sales contraction.” $TSLA @reuters.com www.reuters.com/business/aut...

Russia is a land of mystery, the wonders of Ermitage, the enigma of beautiful women, tantalising Westerners with its boundless puzzle of Russian soul. But perhaps more importantly, Russia is this.

Israeli forces strapped explosives around the neck of an elderly Palestinian man in Gaza and forced him to act as a human shield before killing him and his wife, an investigation by the Israeli news website HaMakom has revealed www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-is...

Somebody should give this BBC reporter a prize. He's taken on the lies of MI5 - and won. Any judge or politician who is supposed to supervise MI5 must now be asking if they too have been lied to. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

An important idea for dealing with Trump, from north of the border open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

You can't accuse the Solicitors' Regulatory Authority of not whole-heartedly embracing the government's pro-growth agenda. If lawyers can't take money from murderous scum to sue journalists for writing true things, how will we ever have growth again? democracyforsale.substack.com/p/uk-law-fir...

Most of the evidence which Murdoch has suppressed is here - allegations that execs conspired in crime to get stories; to spy on politicians; and to pervert the course of justice. All allegations remain untested in court; all are denied by Murdoch company. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...

This is spot on. I was in court for the settlement negotiations. It was explicit in comments from both sets of lawyers that the the suppression of evidence due to be heard in the trial was an absolutely essential requirement for the Murdoch side.

I mean, that's outstanding.

New for @motherjones.com: Jeff Bezos’ Media Companies Kiss Trump’s Ring…Again Amazon Studios will release a documentary about Melania Trump that she’s exec producing, and WaPo killed an editorial cartoon satirizing Bezos’s fealty to Trump. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

PL: This is the big education story, not parents having to pay VAT on a luxury education. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...

The Observer strike is about the future of liberal journalism - in the same week when the Murdoch succession drama plays out in court. My column www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...

Another two days on the picket line tomorrow & Friday with fellow Guardian & Observer journalists to protest shocking decision to give away the Observer to loss-making startup Tortoise. Please join us from 9am – 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Cake, songs, anger & surprise guests

This letter in today’s Guardian, signed by some of the UK’s finest journalists, warns that The Observer, bought by Tortoise Media, could be stripped of much of its excellent foreign reporting. www.theguardian.com/media/2024/d...

"The seeds of its own impending implosion." Journalist @carolecadwalla.bsky.social of The Observer describes the "crisis" caused by the sale of the publication to Tortoise Media, calling it a blow to her defence of mainstream media.

As the Observer’s editor, I was not consulted on its sale to Tortoise Media | Letter www.theguardian.com/media/2024/d...

Key questions about the sale of the Observer that remain unanswered | Letter www.theguardian.com/media/2024/d...

The very idea that Mexico must be bullied with tariffs into cracking down on migrants is designed to imply that it’s doing nothing right now—it’s taking advantage of us, Trump might say—and only his fearsome threats can force it into submission. newrepublic.com/article/1888...

The Guardian's management appears to have declared war on its journalists.

It is 50 years since the IRA planted bombs in two Guildford pubs. It is 50 years since the police began an investigation that ended up imprisoning four innocent people. And now we finally have the full truth about this terrible injustice, writes @bynickdavies.bsky.social. www.prospectmagazine...

IMPORTANT I'm in full support of the Guardian/Observer journos striking today for the future of The Observer, threatened by The Scott Trust’s plan to sell to Tortoise Media. No logic behind the decision, while The Observer risks becoming a stripped-down website Follow @carolecadwalla.bsky.social

So here’s the update. The billionaire owner of the Guardian preparing to get rid of a core part of the news org + 100 journalists. If you’re a Guardian or Observer reader, please share this. The need for a strong, free & independent press couldn’t be greater. Yet, here it is.

We are headed into uncharted territory as a people and a nation. Trump and his allies have promised to initiate their radical right-wing agenda the minute after he takes his hand off the Bible on Inauguration Day. From @ninaburleigh.bsky.social: newrepublic.com/article/1883...

Why do so many feel like they've fallen behind? It's not because of immigrants, trans people, the “deep state,” or any other bogeyman trotted out by the GOP. It's because big corporations and billionaires have rigged markets and siphoned off most of the economy's gains

British tabloids illegally intercepted John Prescott's communications, smeared and ridiculed him. Why? Because he was left-wing, because his politics threatened the power-grabbing greed of tabloid owners. He stood for the best of the Labour movement and suffered from the worst of UK journalism.

NEW: Guardian & Observer vote overwhelming in favour of strike action in protest of sale of the Observer to Tortoise Media.

37 years ago I wrote a profile of Donald Trump. It's not a very good piece. I got just about nothing out of my interview with Trump, pulled most of it together from stuff that was already in the public domain. But two small elements may be worth recycling. www.nickdavies.net/1987/12/01/d...

Madness on social media and dishonesty in politics tend to divert attention from the destructive impact of this huge and relatively new PR industry which routinely manipulates the flow of information about its clients.

Mike Johnson is a visual metaphor for the GOP

1/ X's algorithm was changed in mid-July 2024 to systematically boost Republican-leaning accounts and Elon Musk's own account following his endorsement of Donald Trump, according to a newly released computational study of engagement from the Queensland University of Technology.⬇️

My great grandmother had a long affair with David Lloyd George and gave birth to his illegitimate son. (I was hoping it was my grandfather, just because... but it turned out to be his younger brother.)

My latest Substack -- from Prague, about the West's seven deadly sins in dealing with the lessons of history and the warnings from the frontline states open.substack.com/pub/edwardlu...

Thread - The most important battle in the world for AI supremacy/ impact of Trumps election on Musk’s AI firm value/ OpenAI court emails reveals the real story… but let’s start here with my earlier #Newsnight interview with the now Nobel prize winner Geoffrey Hinton: m.youtube.com/watch?v=MGJp...

Lots of starter packs! - here's a few journalists: BBC Journalists – bsky.app/starter-pack... UK politics: bsky.app/starter-pack... Guardian and observer - bsky.app/starter-pack... FT: bsky.app/starter-pack... Economist - bsky.app/starter-pack... @fwashtell.bsky.social

🎆 Here 'tis! 🎆 Reuters has joined Blue Sky @reuters.com

A very big moment: if both Prince Harry and Tom Watson go to trial in January, the Murdoch company will face claims that it used criminal methods not just to get stories but also to spy on politicians in order to influence their decision-making. The company denies this. www.bbc.com/news/article...

If journalists want to be able to claim that they are operating independently, they probably need to get well away from a site that has now been reworked into a political project: to stay would be to endorse or, at least, to appear to endorse. And anyway it's more fun over here.

Beautifully vivid warning picture in my Colombian bus today.

This is very useful -

An ugly move from a Labour minister: Wes Streeting trying to sabotage a Conscience bill

Assisted dying draft legislation is a mess | There’s broad public support for legislation on assisted dying, but the draft bill is a mess – far better to take our time and get this right | Frances Crook