Trump Betrayed His Own National Security Strategy There is no doctrine, just whim.

open.substack.com/pub/persuasi.... “It’s not a good thing when the world’s most powerful country is guided not by clear ideas, but by the personal needs of a single leader. There is no such thing as a Trump Doctrine, and consequently, no current basis for any kind of world order.” #freefall

Young workers need honesty about the impact of AI on jobs Entry-level professionals are being celebrated for their AI skills, but no one is being frank about the fact these new tools will replace those workers.

www.afr.com/technology/y.... “No one is asking to stop the machines.. We just need those in authority to be candid about what this new world means for us. To articulate what a future economy might look like and how we might fit into it.” #ai #ecnomicimpact

IMF warns of third global recession this century The International Monetary Fund has also urged the Albanese government to refrain from providing more cost-of-living relief in its upcoming May budget.

www.afr.com/policy/econo.... “Despite the recent news of a temporary ceasefire, some damage is already done, and the downside risks remain elevated,” the fund cautioned”. The downside risks remain elevated… Is there a more antiseptic and bloodless way of suggesting we’re in free fall so watch out???

“This pathway is slower, less emotionally satisfying, and far less visible than military intervention, but it is more closely aligned with historical patterns of change that lead to durable outcomes and does not play into geopolitical dynamics that have long treated Iran as a pawn.”

War is not the only path to regime change in Iran The question of “what else” can be done carries an implicit assumption that there is no viable alternative. We should not accept that.

www.afr.com/world/middle.... “..the majority of scholarship ..points toward a pathway that is internally led and grounded in sustained civil resistance, organised social noncooperation, and carefully calibrated forms of external support that prioritise accountability and protection.” #iran

I asked Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about AI’s ‘Chernobyl moment’ The tech giant boss believes in the promise of artificial intelligence to lift human welfare, while also warning of the dangers of the powerful new tools.

www.afr.com/policy/econo.... “..we should not assume that technological advances will automatically deliver better lives or a better society without active steps by humans to shape the technology and the institutions that surround it. The future of AI..is ..an exercise in design.” #ai #regulation

Break-Down, Break-Open and Break-Beyond: A Next Age of Monster where are the Angels… The purpose of this text is to articulate the present without romanticising the past, to face the depth of the challenges now unfolding with clarity, and to open an invitation toward a different futur...

open.substack.com/pub/indyjoha.... “How do ordinary people, institutions of care, civic infrastructures.. new coalitions back forces that can build a different future?..How do we construct institutions that are capable of holding complexity, asymmetry, pluralism without collapsing into extraction.”

The broligarchy's war on journalism The capture of US media by Trump allies is accelerating and the UK is the next in line. Plus: the mystery money behind my old newspaper.

open.substack.com/pub/broligar... . “The press is under a coordinated, global assault... Stop…thinking tech companies will save you, they never have and never will and answer the sodding questions when journalists put them to you.” Answer the questions @theguardian.com @tortoisemedia.bsky.social ??

Faster, higher, stronger: A focus on policy innovation In a fast-paced digital age, policymaking must balance speed, ambition, and rigour. A global Canberra conference will explore adapting processes while preserving trust, care, and public good.

www.themandarin.com.au/309873-faste...

#policyinnovation in Canberra 30 March. Another step: “.policy innovation has been swamped by the speed, intensity, and connectedness in a world whose digital, data- and AI-infused metabolism runs at a pace uncomfortable for settled rhythms of policymaking.”

‘It beggars belief’: MoD sources warn Palantir’s role at heart of government is a threat to UK’s security Experts say that claims UK data remains under government ownership miss the point that the company has the capability to build its own detailed picture of the British population, and even infer state ...

www.thenerve.news/p/palantir-t.... . “What the revelations show, he says, is that the UK has “given a private company such detailed access to our national security data that they can themselves infer things that they just aren’t supposed to know. For whose benefit is this?”

An AI disaster is getting ever closer The scenarios keeping AI bosses awake at night are no longer purely hypothetical. The tech is being used in hacking, scamming, weapons and sabotage.

www.afr.com/technology/a.... “Ever since the capacity of AI to outstrip human capabilities has become clear, the world has been grappling with variations on this dilemma: the technology seems both too potent to pass up and too dangerous to embrace wholeheartedly.” # ai # regulation

Public AI: Policies for democratic and sustainable AI infrastructures This analysis by OECD.AI contributors offers a clear, practical blueprint for “public AI.” It maps where power concentrates across the AI tech stack, such as compute, data, and models, and shows how g...

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/public-.... “Public AI policy should increase the degree of publicness in AI systems rather than seek fully public ones. This means prioritising interventions across the AI stack that generate public value and minimise dependencies on commercial providers.” #publicai #ai

Welcome to the Era of Relational Intelligence (SSIR) As AI begins to transform education, work, and social life, we need to focus on developing and expanding capacities essential for human flourishing.

ssir.org/articles/ent.... “We are entering a pivotal evolutionary moment. The defining challenge is not whether artificial intelligence will advance..but whether we will intentionally cultivate the RQ that makes those advances serve human flourishing, rather than undermine it.” #intelligence #ai

The Death of the Brahmin Left - The Vegemite version in Victoria For twenty years, progressive politics was captured by the educated professional class.

substack.com/inbox/post/1...

The question for progressive politics.. is whether parties that bear the left’s name,and the industries that serve them..will continue refining the Brahmin project for an educated minority while communities they represented find their political expression elsewhere.

Opinion | What causes such maddening bottlenecks in government? ‘Kludgeocracy.’ Public servants are frustrated that policies and procedures often take precedence over mission.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202.... “U.S. govt has..countless dedicated and talented civil servants who find ways to accomplish great things. But..this government is riddled with systems and structures that make it difficult for the most effective individual to quickly and creatively deliver.”

How Brazil's AI Governance Vision Got Sidelined at the India Summit Brazil's multilateralism agenda was forsaken where it mattered most at India's AI summit, Tech Policy Press fellow Tatiana Dias writes.

Brazil arrived at the India AI Impact Summit with a clear mission to reinforce the need for digital sovereignty and multilateralism, but ran into a harsh reality, Tech Policy Press fellow Tatiana Dias writes.

Cities invented democracy—now they have to reinvent it for decarbonisation What we learned mapping 400+ green-democratic innovations across European cities.

open.substack.com/pub/rainerka.... “Democracy did not begin as an abstract constitutional arrangement. It began as a feature of urban life: an attempt to govern collective life in a bounded place, among strangers, under conditions of conflict and scarcity.”

Key takeaways from “Regulating Algorithms: What Governments Around the World Are Doing and What Public Servants Should Know” Building domestic AI systems or reducing reliance on big tech is not the same as making AI work for the public. Examples such as Spain’s ALIA project, the EU AI Act, and Italy’s new AI law show that o...

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/regulat.... “…responsibility for public decisions remains clearly located within governing institutions, even as AI systems become more capable.” #ai #techpolicy

It’s time we took Pauline seriously One Nation is polling at 30 per cent as voters abandon the Coalition. It’s a sign that the Western shift toward consistent, raw conviction has reached Australia.

www.afr.com/politics/it-.... “Believability is often mistaken for warmth or polish. It is neither. Believability is built from alignment – between belief, behaviour and communication. Hanson has that alignment in abundance.” #paulinehanson #auspol

There is nothing creative about AI not paying for news content It is untenable for most people to get their media stories from AI and expect the Australian media to produce these stories without the revenue to cover the cost.

www.afr.com/technology/t.... “Let’s be clear; this is outrageous…most people will get their media stories from AI and Australian media businesses will be expected to incur the cost of producing these stories without the revenue to cover these costs. This is clearly untenable.” #ai #regulation

Jude Wanga | The centre shrinks Much of our politics now consists of performance rather than governance. The calculations are short-term by design: win...

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe.... “Fascism doesn’t require genius to achieve power.It requires vacancy: an absence of courage, of imagination, of commitment to truth..instead of moral clarity, our political class – incompetent at politics and incapable of leadership – offers yet more managerial noise.”

The Tragedy of "The Tragedy of the Commons" The man who wrote one of environmentalism’s most-cited essays was a racist, eugenicist, nativist and Islamaphobe—plus his argument was wrong

www.scientificamerican.com/blog/voices/.... “But let’s not credit Hardin for that common insight. Hardin wasn’t making an informed scientific case. Instead, he was using concerns about environmental scarcity to justify racial discrimination.”

Another in the series of invaluable posts explaining the US extreme right, & here also considering whether it could consolidate power after Trump.
bsky.app/profile/samf...

www.govai.gov.au/chief-ai-off.... “They will need to adopt many of the new dimensions of leadership for the digital age – architects of trust, chief sense makers, to reflexively experiment and learn, to protect legitimacy as assiduously as they chase productivity, to connect change with purpose.”

One Nation surge a challenge to both major parties The immigration debate touches on social cohesion in the post-Bondi environment. But deepening political polarisation is not in the national interest.

www.afr.com/policy/econo.... “..those abandoning the Coalition are motivated not only by negative feelings towards Ley and the Coalition breakup but also by anti-establishment sentiment, lack of confidence in the political system, and..that the major parties are Tweedledee and Tweedledum.” # auspol

Power to the People How Labour can restore civic life and counter the "Britain is broken" narrative

samf.substack.com/p/power-to-t.... “Big Local’s impact hints at the power of civic capacity... We lament the downward spirals that blight communities -factory closes, people lose hop..feeds further decline..these spirals can also go upward -confidence can lead to small wins, build more confidence.”

Govt's consulting bill almost $600 million and rising Almost four years into the Albanese government’s consultants purge, agencies are still on the hook for almost $600 million in active consultant contracts, new integrity disclosures show. The mandatory...

www.innovationaus.com/govts-consul.... “Many of the entries do not include the details recommended by the Senate inquiry,like a meaningful description of the work being delivered, only one of the three biannual disclosures has been in an easily assessable format.” Could do better… #consultants

Ban on Plato readings leaves academics asking who’s next A Texas university has been accused of censorship after one of its philosophy professors was asked to remove readings on the ancient Greek philosopher...

www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto.... “Texas A&M now believes Plato doesn’t belong in an introductory philosophy course.” Always thought he was a bit overrated. Good cal. All very reassuring.Here we were worrying about the end of higher education as we know it. #highereducation #universities

Claude Code and What Comes Next With the right tools, AI can accomplish impressive things

open.substack.com/pub/oneusefu.... “But there's a deeper point here: with the right harness, today's AIs are capable of real, sustained work that actually matters, and that, in turn, is starting to change how we approach tasks.” #ai Keep up…

2026 Global Social Progress Index The Global Social Progress Index is distinct in its comprehensive approach and rigorous assessment of the wellbeing of a society. By focusing only on the non-economic aspects of social performance, th...

www.socialprogress.org/social-progr.... “.. the steady improvement in quality of life of recent decades may be going into reverse..rights are down nearly 6 points since 2011..health, safety,environmental quality all down..water,sanitation, housing,access to information slowed..” #socialprogress
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