Anti-Islam influencer Valentina Gomez blocked from entering UK for far-right rally Exclusive: Home secretary understood to have withdrawn authorisation for speaker at Unite the Kingdom rally in May

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

“It’s clear that AI companies’ initial promise to America — that first it would take their job, and eventually it might kill them — has not inspired a groundswell of public support.”

Emails show Amazon colluding with other firms to raise prices, California authorities allege The previously redacted messages were unveiled as part of an antitrust battle with California attorney general Rob Bonta

Emails released on Monday by California’s attorney general show Amazon allegedly colluding with other companies to raise the prices of pet treats, khaki pants, eyedrops and other products sold online

Free speech absolutism.

I would not say “the cool thing is you dont need to be an expert” if my job was, essentially, to be an expert

Very sharply written column. It remains amazing how much Starmer loves talking about making tough choices and taking responsibility, and how he never, ever *actually* does it.

Satellite images reveal scale of Israeli demolitions as Lebanese villages destroyed BBC Verify analysis found more than 1,400 buildings had been destroyed since 2 March.

It's easy to succumb to outrage fatigue. But this was four days ago. 2,000 killed. 1.2 million displaced. Entire villages demolished. A 40km 'buffer zone' (10% of Lebanon's territory) annexed. It's barely raised a resigned shrug, but it meets the criteria for war crime. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I just think if the government was to become this unpopular this quickly, they might as well have done it by increasing taxes on median+ earners.

This is a remarkable and important step.

Ukraine, a country under full scale invasion for 4+ years, is signing deals to co-develop/produce weapons with other countries.

Saudi, UAE and Qatar are not only confident of but also banking on Ukraine being a functional nation state over the next decade.

Trump continues to crater. New NBC poll has his approval down to 37-63, which is 26 points underwater.

Crucially, 50% disapprove *strongly.* Has any other president had half the country strongly disapproving?

www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...

Pregnancy vaccine reduces baby hospital admissions for RSV by 80% A study confirms the vaccine gives excellent protection for babies against life-threatening chest infections.

Some good news.
“A vaccine during pregnancy which protects newborns against nasty chest infections (RSV) is cutting hospital admissions of babies by more than 80%, UK health officials say.”

Democrats planning to run in November’s midterm elections have been advised not to antagonise pro-AI campaign groups that have amassed more than $300mn to fight for the industry’s priorities. The warnings by top party consultants, corroborated by people close to four different campaigns and party strategists speaking on the condition of anonymity, come despite internal polling for Democrats showing widespread public support for tougher AI rules.

They're calling it the best democracy ever.

www.ft.com/content/7529...

Traders place $760 million bet on falling oil ahead of Hormuz announcement Investors placed a bet worth about $760 million on a falling oil price around 20 minutes before Iran's foreign ​minister announced on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was open, ‌another sizeable wager...

Traders place $760 million bet on falling oil ahead of Hormuz announcement

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Somewhat ludicrous BBC headline: "staggering" I was not told Mandelson failed vetting, says PM

[climbing out of my car which is now embedded in my neighbours' front room, turning to them hands on hips] honestly I'm as mad about this as you are

Constantly reminded of this Ted Chiang passage on capitalism, technology and progress from the New Yorker whenever I see the tech “elite” snowflaking about criticism.

Because people are realizing that "convenience" means paying a shitload of money to basically rent a movie or song you never own and everyone is tired of it. I'm not even a physical media stan and I think it's pretty obvious and makes all the sense in the world

I wonder how many people will end up getting fired to maintain the artificd that Keir Starmer didn't know who Peter Mandelson was when he gave him a prominent public service job.

The ‘Sovereign AI Fund’, which invests UK taxpayers’ money, announced its first portfolio of 6 companies .

Some of them seem to train AI on copyrighted work without a licence.

UK taxpayer money should not go to AI companies that exploit creatives.

Suspect this won't go down well

Relocating Venice ‘may be necessary’ if sea levels continue to rise Scientists warn that no adaptation measure can sustain Venice as rising sea levels threaten to swallow the city.

'Scientists warn that no adaptation measure can sustain Venice as rising sea levels threaten to swallow the city'

The enormous cost of doing nothing:

share.google/5RAPDWU5q57E...

have there been similarly culturally pervasive “everyone needs to start using this tech right now” pushes over such a relatively brief time frame as we’re currently seeing with LLMs? (This is a very genuine question)

Record number of homes in Great Britain turn to green energy as fuel prices soar Iran war drives demand for solar panels, heat pumps and EVs, with energy bills expected to rise 18% from July

Heat pump orders up 2x in a month. Solar panel inquiries up 250%. EV leases up 85%.

The Iran crisis has made energy security feel personal.
I understand why: I have solar panels, a heat pump & EV on a flexible tariff. When gas prices spike, my bills barely move.

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Just opened a report and it has a disclaimer that it was generated by ChatGPT and has been checked, but you should mentally start every sentence with “It seems that…”

How does this save me time. How does this share information. How does this help me access material I can trust and so can act on.

Thing is, I can sort of believe that Starmer just literally didn't ask whether Mandelson actually passed vetting, and also that his Downing Street imagines this to be an excuse rather than a pretty strong case for resignation in and of itself.

Migrants are making false domestic abuse allegations to stay in the UK, BBC investigation finds In the third part of an undercover investigation, the BBC reveals how rules aimed at protecting abuse victims are being exploited.

So this is genuinely the extent of the BBC’s front-page “investigation”: they spoke to one alleged crook and recorded him boasting, one victim of apparently unrelated abuse, one non-immigration lawyer who “thinks” there’s a problem, and Jess Phillips. It’d be laughable if it weren’t so serious 7/

a chart of bsky's outage

I know bsky has gone down many times before but 12 hours of seemingly persistent major problems is new, right?

im glad scott is finally figuring out what project hes been working on all these long years lol

Linda Yaccarino replies to a Zohran Mamdani tweet to say that taxing rich people's penthouses is "actually one of the scariest things I have ever seen"

Zohran Mamdani said he's going to start taxing rich people who buy luxury housing in NYC but don't actually live in there, and the former CEO of Twitter/X called it "actually one of the scariest things I have ever seen."

Seen the latest rake jump from our forensic PM and it's very funny how whenever something happens that would usually have merited his intervention his excuse is basically "I'm the most unaware person to have ever existed" and we're just expected to treat that as anything other than disqualifying.

I mean look, a Labour government *cannot* cut welfare spending to increase defence spending. It’s just silly to pretend it can.
And more generally: “cut social spending to rearm” is just awful advice across the EU. Is Europe more or less secure if populists win elections?

Reckon George Lucas is sitting pretty at Skywalker Ranch thinking about all the people who said that a blockade of a major trade route was a stupid thing to base a movie around?