CPJ calls for immediate rescue of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, trapped under rubble in southern Lebanon - Committee to Protect Journalists UPDATE: On April 22, the Red Cross reported that they had found the body of Amal Khalil under the rubble. Beirut, April 22, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged that the Israeli Defen...

Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil found dead after being trapped in rubble following Israeli strike, obstruction of rescue:
cpj.org?p=583367

Travel with a few books. My rule is once I’m at the airport then I’m on travel time and don’t have any responsibilities until I arrive. Time to find a corner somewhere and settle in for a couple of hours of down time.

(Seems about as likely as this actually being built in the next few years)

Can we make a rule it can only be used to build language models using indigenous Kimberly languages?

Data Work Is Too Secretive. Big Tech Should be Held Accountable. The data work industry, which collects information to train AI systems for tech companies, is often shrouded in secrecy, Tatiana Dias writes.

The data work industry, which monetizes the collection of information used to train AI systems, is often shrouded in secrecy. But a new report maps out how at least 30 data platforms are quietly connected to Big Tech companies, Tech Policy Press fellow Tatiana Dias writes.

Record number of Rohingya refugees died at sea last year, UNHCR says - DVB Nearly 900 Rohingya refugees were reported missing or dead in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal in 2025, ​making it the deadliest year on record for the route, the United ‌Nations refugee agency said ...

Nearly 900 Rohingya refugees were reported missing or dead in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal in 2025, ​making it the deadliest year on record for the route, the United ‌Nations refugee agency said on Friday.

Read more english.dvb.no/record-numbe...

#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

I've written before about how USAID was the first government agency killed by conspiracy theory. This confirms it.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-death-...

Whistleblower says Trump officials thought USAID did 'just abortions,' asked for 'Barney-style' slides before gutting agency, per new book Read an exclusive excerpt from Nicholas Enrich's "Into the Wood Chipper"

NEW—I got an exclusive excerpt from a USAID whistleblower's new book that made me gasp multiple times. It details Trump's dismantling of the humanitarian aid agency & his team/DOGE's shocking ignorance to public health.

'Into the Wood Chipper' by Nicholas Enrich is out tomorrow. Read excerpt here:

Analysis Finds That Google's AI Overviews Are Providing Misinformation at a Scale Possibly Unprecedented in the History of Human Civilization A new analysis commissioned by The New York Times suggests that Google's AI Overviews are wrong an astonishing percentage of the time.

This is catastrophic.

Targeted Small Drone Attacks on Civilians: A Global OSINT Picture A global OSINT map of targeted small drone attacks on civilians since 2022.

Small drone attacks are killing more civilians around the world than ever before.

I made a map about it:

There’s a reason people read the classics.

To be clear: Anthropic, the 'good' AI company, is still working with Palantir to help select targets for US/Israeli war crimes in Iran, and is in active talks with the USG about using their new Mythos model's offensive cyberwar capabilities, while team Trump is threatening civilizational erasure

Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera. Behind closed doors in Washington, top advisers made a series of decisions that had devastating repercussions for the poorest country on earth. We went to South Sudan and found people who died as a re...

Here are the stories of some of the human beings who died horrific deaths from preventable disease because Trump and Musk and their flunkies decided to murder them by gleefully destroying USAID and the entire global aid system:

When the age assurance technology trial released its final report before Australia’s under-16s social media ban came into effect last year, its first finding was: age assurance can be done privately, efficiently and effectively. Four months since the ban came into effect, we can say that was – to paraphrase Yes Minister – a courageous statement.

Wrote about yesterday's social media ban data showing more than two thirds of teens still have accounts. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Hey Oz, if you don’t want the US crew of a plane that appears to have just deported people to Myanmar laying over in your country, now is the time to tell your government. bsky.app/profile/jjin...

A man at a wrestling match holding a sign which says ‘pro science, pro choice, pro wrestling’

'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back Kenyan workers are still the underpaid labor behind AI training, moderation, and sex chatbots. The Data Labelers Association is fighting back.

I met with AI data labelers in Kenya who are organizing their colleagues to fight the brutal working conditions and horrible pay given to the workers at the "bottom of the AI supply chain." They believe the NDAs they've signed are unenforceable so are speaking out:

www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...

Wow, it's beautiful!

PSA: @readingsbooks.bsky.social is offering a 10% discount for recent books of authors who have chosen to withdraw from the 2026 Adelaide Writers' Week:

www.readings.com.au/collections/...

Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show As regulators pressure Meta to verify the identity of advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant has drafted a “playbook” to stall them. A Reuters investigation examines its tactics...

We got Meta’s “general global playbook” for defeating advertiser verification regulations, which the company knows would reduce scams. It includes making scam ads “not findable” for regulators searching Meta’s ad library through targeted scrubbing.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

The 2025 Headline of the Year Nominees

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Tech Policy Press: The Year in Books 2025 | TechPolicy.Press In 2025, a number of authors joined the Tech Policy Press podcast, providing fresh insights into how technology interacts with people, politics, and power.

For many, the end of the year is an opportunity to catch up on reading or to purchase books as gifts. In 2025, a number of authors joined the Tech Policy Press podcast, providing fresh insights into how technology interacts with people, politics, and power. Check out the list:

Some of these redactions are almost like modern art

Bracket showing the 32 names in the Worst Person in Tech 2025

🚨 THE BATTLE BEGINS 🚨

Your favorite year-end contest is back. It’s time to choose who will be this year’s Worst Person In Tech for 2025!

Each day of this week new matchups will drop until we choose the winner on Friday.

🗳️ Cast your ballot: twsu.forms.app/worst-person...

Add to this that social media age checks in Australia are being outsourced to KWS, a US-based subsidiary of Epic Games -- created by startup SuperAwesome (youth-targeted ad strategies).

"We may share your information with our Epic Games family of companies" www.kidswebservices.com/en-US/partne...

My photo shows the front side (recto) of an ancient Egyptian administrative document written by the scribe Amunnakht in hieratic script (cursive writing of hieroglyphics). It is written in black ink on papyrus by the scribe Amunnakht. The papyrus is now a yellowy-brown colour and is worn in places. The document is known as the ‘Strike Papyrus’ and recounts that in November of Year 29 of the reign of Ramesses III, the royal tomb workers of Deir el-Medina stopped work for the first time and spent several days at the Theban necropolis in the temples of Tuthmosis III and Ramesses II. They demanded that the grain ratians for their work be distributed, and the authorities subsequently disbursed the grain rations. However, a few days later, the workers went on strike again, this time finding refuge in the temple of Seti I. Their refusal to retum to work stemmed fram the precarious working conditions, a situation they wanted to bring directly to the pharaoh. The last strike documented here was in January of the following year.

Labour strikes aren’t new!

The first recorded strike in history took place in Egypt some 3,200 years ago!

The ‘Strike Papyrus’ records that tomb workers of King Ramesses III downed tools over pay and conditions circa 1157 BC!

Museo Egizio, Turin 📷 by me

#Archaeology

‘An election held under fear’: Junta persecutes critics of its poll Myanmar’s regime is hunting down those who oppose its upcoming election by using a law criminalising any criticism of the poll, detaining and handing long jail sentences to a wide array of people, fro...

Myanmar’s regime is hunting down those who oppose its upcoming election by using a law criminalising any criticism of the poll, detaining and handing long jail sentences to a wide array of people, from film stars to ordinary citizens.

Australia passes a shameful milestone: over one million children now living in poverty For all the focus on inflation, interest rates and cost-of-living pressures this year, the nation quietly passed a shameful milestone in 2025, ensuring a bleak Christmas for more Australian families t...

"Australia passes a shameful milestone: over one million children now living in poverty" #ThePoint
thepoint.com.au/news/251212-...

AI toys for kids talk about sex and issue Chinese Communist Party talking points, tests show New research from Public Interest Research Group and tests conducted by NBC News found that a wide range of AI toys have loose guardrails.

New! We worked with the Public Interest Research Group to test a bunch of LLM-driven toys ahead of the Christmas. That sexual talking teddy bear wasn't a one-off; it turns out disturbing behavior is deeply built into these toys across the board.