Facial recognition to be 'rolled out' across UK after human rights challenge fails Facial recognition systems will be introduced across the country, the government has said as it welcomed the failure of a legal challenge to the technology. The case against the Metropolitan Police's...

Orwell's nightmare becomes real every day
uk.news.yahoo.com/facial-recog...

The murders continue.

The U.S. Has Now Killed More Than 180 People in Boat Strikes. We’re Tracking Them All @theintercept.com

theintercept.com/2025/11/17/t...

Deaths in ICE Custody Skyrocket: 2026 Toll Reaches 17, on Average One a Week As the Trump administration continues to rapidly expand its immigration jail system across the United States, we look at the rising death toll of people in ICE custody, the highest in over two decades...

Millions of people voted for this? "Hundreds of kids have been detained in really horrific conditions… the ICE detention system is inherently inhumane, and we have seen really unconscionable conditions that no human being should suffer, and especially not kids" www.democracynow.org/2026/4/21/ic...

Palestinians politics needs more than crumbs of comfort. These Israelis were allowed to continue "after signing a document promising to respect “the law”. Meanwhile, Gaza lies in ruins and the people of the West Bank suffer rape, shootings and annexaton www.palestinechronicle.com/irans-enemy-...

…an armed Israeli settler — dressed in military fatigues, kippah on his head, peyot curls dangling — sneering with sadistic delight as he filmsa Palestinian woman on what remains of her ancestral land, her face a mask of pain and exhaustion

www.palestinechronicle.com/the-settlers...

Philosophically, @paulwaldman.bsky.social the key is in the notion of inalienable human rights. Hobbes defined these very well: there is a right to your body and your life. Everything else, is a social compact, a political arrangement.

What a disaster he is. Thomas began his speech by citing the Declaration's line: “We hold these truths to be self-evident" adding, with "the essay-writing technique familiar to mediocre students everywhere" the "American Heritage Dictionary defines selfevident as obviously true & requiring no proof”

I knew that Mandelson failed security vetting. So why didn’t Keir Starmer? Political editor David Maddox looks back on The Independent’s exclusive in September last year and how he informed Downing Street of Mandelson’s vetting failure seven months before the prime minister ...

"throughout, Starmer’s response has been that he did not know and others did not tell him… Meanwhile, as the PM stays in post, chief of staff McSweeney, cabinet secretary Sir Chris, director of comms Tim Allan and now the FO's Sir Olly have all left their jobs"
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Inside the anti-school movement behind pupils skipping their GCSEs With trust in government at an all-time low, children – and their parents – are now rejecting the education system. Amid a school refusal epidemic and a growing anti-exam movement, Chloe Combi delves ...

I've also tried to highlight (eg in CTS for Dummies), the reality that exam success is morel closely related to social class than it is to any other metric. Put another way, the exam system is a complicated way to transfer social inequality over generations.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

This Lego video for drunk FBI Director Kash Patel is absolutely brilliant 😂💙😎👏💥💥💥💥

Monday’s Mandelson showdown could be Starmer’s last stand | John Crace Nothing about No 10’s version of the Mandelson debacle makes sense as the excuses factory works overtime

"To imagine that everything happened exactly as Downing Street would have us believe …means accepting that the people running the country are even more incompetent than we imagined.… either Starmer misled parliament or he’s more useless than we thought." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is Iran. These are the people being murdered in our name.

Theory doing the rounds is that the far-right US administration's move to leave NATO is being driven by Israe's plans to attack TURKEY - a NATO member. From Israel's twisted worldview, Turkey is seen as a regional threat. And the US might well join in this mad exercise.

Trump stood behind the jouno and said "What a guy!"

'He doesn't understand the normal signals of human behaviour. He doesn't understand that it is not acceptable to swear in public, or to pretend to be Jesus. He cannot empathise with people. His behaviour is that of a psychopath.'

Given Trump's denial that he thought THAT image of him as Jesus was really him as a doctor, interesting to see that years ago, he showed a journalist at Mar-a-Lago.a large painting of himself as a God-like, orange figure. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Up to 30 lorries as day as clean up of Kidlington dump officially begins Up to 30 lorries a day will now remove the illegal waste dump in Kidlington as the £8m clean-up begins

The income raised by charing for waste disposal is by the most optimistic calculations, HALF that of the cost of clearing it up (£1 billion a year). The policy is absurd and has created a new kind of "waste mafia". uk.yahoo.com/news/30-lorr...

The United States is destroying itself | Rebecca Solnit The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment

"It’s the antidemocratic weaknesses in our system that created the vulnerabilities that let this happen – the electoral college and voter suppression that gave Trump a minority victory in 2016, the gerrymandering that has given a minority party majority power " www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

In the UK, Keir Starmer has few fans. I learned that in China it’s a very different story | Martin Rowson The prime minister’s meal in a Yunnan restaurant in Beijing has spawned a national menu. The man has, bizarrely, become a phenomenon, says cartoonist and author Martin Rowson

Starmer in China: "the Chinese loved him. He ate with chopsticks, he said thank you in Chinese… And I suspect, most of all, they loved him just for being there, while recognising in him one of their own, a modest bureaucrat interested in calm, order and obedience"
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli right really mean when they invoke ‘Greater Israel’ | Daniel Levy The concept is about much more than acquiring territory, it is also about Netanyahu’s desire for Israel to become a regional superpower, says Daniel Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project

"In recent speeches, Netanyahu has started referring to Israel not only as a “regional superpower”, but “in some respects, a global superpower”.… [and] Israel has not been shy in naming the next “threat” to be addressed: Turkey." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... Maybe Turkey should act now!

Hungary election: Viktor Orbán ousted after 16 years in power as opposition heads for landslide - follow live The long-serving prime minister concedes defeat to Péter Magyar, who has promised closer EU ties and an anti-corruption drive.

At last, the drift towards authoritarianism starts to reverse
www.bbc.com/news/live/c2...

Hungarians have said "yes to Europe" with this vote, Magyar says. Checks and balances will be restored, he vows, telling supporters he will restore Hungarian democracy.

Change is coming as Trump awakens a sleeping giant The past terrifying week has caused me to wonder: How did America ever get to a point where one man, backed by the military might of the United States, could credibly threaten death to an entire civil...

"I’m also wondering how 19 super-rich American households could have added $1.8 trillion to their wealth in just the last 24 months" www.alternet.org/trump-sleepi... It’s time to eschew the myth that we need a billionaire oligarchy to guide our economy …

Facts spoken by an ex-trumper...

Trump warns tomorrow might be when ‘entire country’ of Iran ‘is taken out’: Latest Warning comes after US president claimed Iranians ‘want to hear bombs because they want to be free’ in latest bizarre rant

Given this sort of language, Iran might be tempted to launch its freshly replenished stock of CRUISE MISSILES at targets in the US. I wonder if The Trump regime has considered that…
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/m...

This Is What Trump Thinks Makes You a Domestic Terrorist The FBI included a detailed list of what constitutes domestic terrorist activity in the 2027 budget.

Buried in the FBI’s 2027 budget is a funding request to hunt so-called domestic terrorists: "Anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity ... extremism on migration, race, and gender. And hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality."

i want to remind folks that while a third of Americans still support Trump, our history shows that 1/3 of citizens opposed leaving the monarchy in 1780s, 1/3 were good with slavery in 1860s, 1/3 opposed womens right to vote in 1900s, 1/3 opposed civil rights in 1960s.

The Terrorist in Chief It’s time for us to face up to the ugly reality

Exact. "Terrorism, according to ICE — yes, ICE — “involves violence or the threat of violence against people or property to further a particular ideology.” Their website goes on: “Terrorists do not care who they hurt or kill to achieve their goals.” paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-terror...

What is Palantir? YouTube video by Novara Media

Video short revealing yet more far-right hypocrisy from Sir Keir and @uklabourparty.bsky.social This is about how they have handed the world's most evil corporation - Palantir - £zillions to abuse private health and other data here and prepare kill lists for the IDF there youtube.com/shorts/J7mg_...

Quora

"In the long run, the world order is changing. China is rising. America is declining. The global South is gaining in importance… Israel has overplayed its hand, in a way that ultimately contributes to the downfall of the colonialist project. "
www.quora.com?qv_src=email

Yes, but Biden was also usy bombing Gaza's helpless civilians into the dust at the time. The problem is the United States, not Trump.