in september 2024 @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social hosted a symposium asking whether int'l law would survive (we toyed with 'thrive', too optimistic). the journal is out & i've been meaning to direct ppl to it & my foreword. escholarship.org/uc/jitcl & my foreword here: escholarship.org/uc/item/2jx4...

While the AI bubble is primarily a *material* phenomenon (driven by the calculation that bosses are easy marks for a sales pitch for replacing workers with apps), there is an inescapable ideological component to it: the desire for a world without people in it: pluralistic.net/2026/05/13/v... 1/

"the right and left have large, substantive disagreements that are matters of life and death... Mistaking cultural signifiers and identity markers for politics is centrism's most dangerous pathology, the thing that makes centrism the handmaiden of the right."

The far right: screaming about government tyranny and surveillance out of one side of their mouths, whilst investing in it for fun and profit out of the other. This is the company behind the child nudity detection snake oil, the newly converted Jesus freaks who previously courted Prince Andrew.

France national team uses ICE deportation planes for World Cup travel www.theguardian.com/football/liv...

EU-US Data Transfers in light of the Trump v Slaughter decision noyb.eu/sites/defaul... @noybeu.bsky.social letter to EC Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, Michael Mcgrath and EC Director for Equality and Union Citizenship, Irena Moozova

US Supreme Court blew up EU-US Data Transfers in Trump v. Slaughter noyb.eu/en/us-suprem...

A six-month investigation by Byline Times reveals that with the support of Palantir's Peter Thiel, Reform's policy chief James Orr has used the University of Cambridge as a student recruitment ground for a hard-right, theocratic political project aimed at bolstering talent in Farage’s party

Foxglove's petition to Andy Burnham for when he becomes prime minister - get Palantir out of our NHS. A secretive US spy tech firm with strong links to Trump has no business holding our health data. www.foxglove.org.uk/campaigns/an...

"If you let people put crap data into the thing, don't be surprised it you can't do anything with it. But the pressure... is as long as this is running, as long as it's live, as long as people like the interface, as long as it works on my phone, the it's great" Marc Farr

👇 "IT folk have wasted a massive opportunity in the last 20 to 30 years by buying big American pieces of software with less thought on how you handle the data within it. And it's a really key distinction that you kinda need to make..." Marc Farr

👇 Sort out the data integration layer & it enables research, patient care, population health management & strategic commissioning. Focus on buying software puts the value in the wrong place. Marc Farr, Chair Chief Data & Analytical Officer Network @25m 30s Episode 2 goodlawprojectpodcast.podbean.com

"Deception and lack of integrity undermines confidence – the way to fix that is absolutely transparency and accountability... Wes Streeting bet the entire NHS on him being right, and he ran away to make sure he wouldn’t be held responsible for the failure." medconfidential.org/2026/the-com...

"If Streeting were the politician he believed himself to be, why the secrecy? If he believed this would work, why not say this is the pathway? We’ll close GPs, ban you from walking into hospitals, AI everything, but care will be better, and you’ll elect me as PM!"

"Mr Streeting’s belief was that if you fix waiting lists and GP practices, it’ll all be wonderful. As with the rest of the culture of the Blair Government in Exile, the assumption was it didn’t matter how things were done... human rights are an inconvenience, patient choice is an inconvenience."

"Across the NHS, political priorities come first, and the safety, usability, and safeguards that make a service usable and safe for everyone are only promised for later, and often never get delivered."

"the AI will decide whether you get to see a GP, or maybe you get to see someone less trained. If you don’t use the NHS app, you’ll be at the back of the queue when the NHS national AIs prioritise appointments."

"Waiting lists will come down because the AI will only let through the people... at the capacity that they can flow through. When the Department of Health... says half the people on a waiting list don’t need to be there, they mean that they can stop them joining" medconfidential.org/2026/the-com...

"If GPs are to be data controllers for... the Single Patient Record, then your GP will be... responsible for auditing access to your record. But GPs aren’t being provided with any mechanism to do this, so GPs and patients will be forced to rely on those most incentivised to cover it all up"

"Ministers promised you’d control your data...Health Bill and NHS England say otherwise...Ministers argue their actions have no possible negative consequences. After 20 years of evidence to the contrary, they are either...utterly disingenuous or wilfully ignorant" medconfidential.org/2026/ministe...

These failings are not just in relation to the eVisa scheme, but a wider issue with the ICO’s poor track record on enforcement. The letter calls on the Committee to investigate what institutional changes are needed to strengthen the ICO's ability to oversee the government and other public bodies.

In an FOI response, the ICO did reveal that they'd received 851 complaints about the Home Office as a whole between 2023 and 2025. The volume of complaints was so significant, the ICO was unable to identify how many were about the eVisa scheme specifically. The Select Committee must investigate.

Last year, ORG and 18 other civil society organisations called on the ICO to investigate breaches resulting from the eVisa scheme. Seven months later, the ICO hasn't taken any action to address these infringements of data protection law. Meanwhile, migrants continue to have their lives affected.

The Home Office has known about problems with the eVisa scheme from the start. Its poor design and lack of Data Protection Impact Assessment has resulted in breaches. But the Home Office is still failing to be transparent about the volume of complaints and how and when they will deal with them.

This comes after John Edwards’ resignation as Information Commissioner last week. ORG calls on the government to appoint a regulator with teeth. We must reset the regulators’ approach of providing data protection in name only and have them actually enforce our data rights. Sign our petition ⬇️

NEW: 20 civil society organisations have called for an investigation into the ICO for failing to uphold data protection law in relation to eVisas. This scheme has been plagued with breaches and accessibility issues. And the ICO has done nothing to hold the Home Office to account. Find out more ⬇️

"Together, US states and foreign enforcers have the opportunity of the century – a chance to shatter the power of Trump's tech giants, who are so key to Trump's authoritarian takeover."

Calling a by-election over the sovereign right of every MP to take secret gifts from a convicted criminal. What a time to be alive.

CHAT CONTROL IS BACK → Today the urgent procedure for Chat Control 1.0 was passed. Next up: EU Parliament is voting on Thursday. If Chat Control passes your messages, pictures, videos will all be scanned because the law will require it - this removes privacy & welcomes mass surveillance in the EU.

I've been through the report as I continue to follow a story *which does not directly affect me* but which I think amounts to a national scandal. Some wild findings: * The "terms and conditions" applicants got were actually a GUIDE to the terms and conditions www.newstatesman.com/politics/edu...

* They were also explicitly told loans would not affect their ability to get a mortgage. Which is just untrue - student loan repayments absolutely affect mortgage affordability criteria, as they are finding out now www.newstatesman.com/politics/edu...

As someone who's been writing about this for almost a decade, it's nice to see MPs lay out in blunt terms exactly how successive governments misled a generation of aspirational young people in a way that would be unlawful with a normal commercial lender www.newstatesman.com/politics/edu...

This is pretty damning. Essentially accuses successive governments of exploitation. www.newstatesman.com/politics/edu...

Will anything happen? The Committee says the government has a "moral obligation" to reverse the threshold freeze. That's where we're most likely to see change. As for the rest, my guess is this just rumbles on. Graduates don't get much sympathy from governments www.newstatesman.com/politics/edu...

There is no legal recourse for graduates - because the contract they thought they signed wasn't a contract. What that does to this generation's view of politicians, institutions and democracy itself... well, we'll have to see. www.newstatesman.com/politics/edu...

Oh and finally! The aim back in 2012 was for individuals to bear 60% of the cost of a degree, and the state 40%. Anyone want to guess how much of the burden is estimated to fall on individual graduates now? Any guesses? 95%. www.newstatesman.com/politics/edu...

The social media ban in Bill C-34 causes harms both when it works and when it doesn’t. When it does not work, governments escalate enforcement demands leading to less privacy and more surveillance. When it works, it cuts young people off from the news.

#chatcontrol 1.0 and 2.0 Explained: There is not one proposed “Chat Control” law — there are two, and they are moving through the EU institutions in parallel. This page untangles the two. https://fightchatcontrol.eu/chat-control-overview

Assuming Zelensky is even directionally correct here, that is truly chilling - tens of thousands of dead, every single one on video. Wow. Russia bears all the blame for this slaughter, but man is it terrible.

Nigel Farage denies that he was secretly funded by convicted criminal, George Cottrell. Adding, I already have a convicted criminal who supports me thank you very much

Potential kinetic energy batteries are nuts

"A subset of humanity is committed to a world where everyone else takes orders from them. We have different names for these people. We call the majority of them “toddlers,” but we call the others “bosses” or “tyrants.”"

AI is already rewriting reality for billions of people. It is getting women wrong. www.unwomen.org/en/news-stor...

👇

vt.tiktok.com/ZSCGujM7M/ Because... #f'djt #Felon #Grifter #Conman

"disinformation is being weaponized as an authoritarian practice to unduly entrench power, responses must be comprehensive and in line with international human rights law. States should implement preventive, legislative, and corrective measures" but they're doing barely any of the three...

"When analysing the scope of Art 10, people tend to ask: ‘Does someone have a right to say this?’ But that is the wrong question. The correct one is: ‘Does the government have a right to interfere and sacrifice our collective liberty for this?’" 1/2 strasbourgobservers.com/2026/06/30/a...

Last proper Electoral Commissioner explained how Farage breaches PPERA 2000 in almost every way "In a normal political world, his advisers would long ago have told him to shut up and possibly to fess up. But we no longer live in a normal political world." #Brexit meant an end to independent EC

"Immigration policing, when carried out under a domestic terrorism framework, functions as both the justification and testing ground for a police state infrastructure" notechforice.com/wp-content/u... #surveillance #ICE #Democracy

In the near future, AI-powered surveillance systems will be able to track everything we do in public, and much of what we do in private. This will chill social progress. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...