Really good piece. I've followed lots of this stuff but hadn't quite realised how bad adolescent sleep disruption is at the moment. As a chronic (but relapsing-remitting) insomniac, I'm surprised how blasé people and institutions are about the destructive effects of sleep deprivation.

Will Davies@will-davies.bsky.social · 10h ago

I've written about Neets for the LRB. It is odd listening to recent debates about this completely ignore the overwhelming fact of this current crisis, that it is one of inactivity, disability, mental ill-health and neurodevelopmental disorders (as I discuss) www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

“Palantir pays no U.S. federal income tax because previous losses, tax credits, and R&D deductions offset its taxable income; and virtually no state income tax, with the exception of Maryland, which levies a digital services tax.”

POLITICO Europe@politico.eu · 14h ago

Palantir is shifting profits from its European operations to the U.S., allowing the Florida-based data analytics giant to pay minimal taxes in Europe, a new report finds.

Daytime trains anywhere beyond London - Brussels - Amsterdam, and London - Paris are a TOTAL PAIN Please just work on extending that, and making it work, before talking about night trains!

Fairly sober testing report from the AI Security Institute: they gave internet access and removed some guardrails from latest AI models and found without them they were capable of potentially harmful activity directed at real people and organisations www.aisi.gov.uk/blog/inciden...

It was nearly 20 years ago when I first heard this, but I’ve listened to it so many times (and listened to it again yesterday) I’d like to recommend everybody listen to this episode of BBC‘s In Our Time on the social contract. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

In Our Time - The Social Contract - BBC Sounds

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Social Contract; a key idea in political philosophy.

bbc.co.uk

1/14 A brief break from #TheHormuzCrisis. I've never really explained why the phrase "put the Navy in the Channel" to stop #SmallBoat crossings isn't, in itself, a serious maritime strategy. It sounds decisive. From a maritime perspective though, it raises far more questions than it answers.

AI is great because it can cut the human trafficking out of fraud

“The rules require companies to tell customers when they are interacting with AI systems and to identify AI-generated images, audio and video.”

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 5d ago

AI’s ‘cookie banner’ moment: EU labels come for the bots ft.trib.al/wH8l3vj

I'm late to this from the @dxw.com blog but it's excellent and refreshingly uncertain about how junior developers and AI will work together in an agency environment: www.dxw.com/2026/06/what...

What are we going to do about junior engineers?

Nicky looks at the role of junior engineers and what skills they'll need as AI progresses

dxw.com

I'm pro all this, but we need new approaches for the lack of mayoral scrutiny - here's our overview from last year and some approaches that would improve civic scrutiny research.mysociety.org/html/mayoral...

Mayoral Scrutiny

New forms of devolution need new forms of scrutiny

research.mysociety.org

All 1850 MW of Hungary's Paks Nuclear Power Plant (red) could be shut down entirely for 1st time due to insufficient cooling water from Danube River. unn.ua/en/news/an-e... 1/4

👀

Eliot Higgins@eliothiggins.bsky.social · 6d ago

Google Earth, a tool often used as a source of satellite imagery to verify photos and videos, has added a feature that allows you to alter satellite imagery with AI, for reasons. blog.google/products-and...

Following on the heels of the massive proposed gas-powered data center complex in Ohio led by OpenAI with backing from Nvidia, Anthropic moving forward with its own massive gas-powered data center complex in Texas with backing from Google. [gift link]

Exclusive | Banks in Talks to Lend $15 Billion for Anthropic Data Center Backed by Google

Google’s guarantees of power and lease obligations would help the developer secure financing for the 1.6-gigawatt Texas project.

wsj.com

Amazing resource klaxon 📣

michael veale@michae.lv · 6d ago

Parts of the GDPR are cited and interpreted by thousands of pieces of case law and guidance, but there's no easy and free way to find out what. We've made a tool which makes it super easy, for 13,000 citing documents, all in one place. More regulations to come! homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucqnmve/law...

Parts of the GDPR are cited and interpreted by thousands of pieces of case law and guidance, but there's no easy and free way to find out what. We've made a tool which makes it super easy, for 13,000 citing documents, all in one place. More regulations to come! homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucqnmve/law...

🛰️ #SkyCommonsObservatory by OKFN: Tracking Who Profits from Connectivity in Space and Who Gets Left Behind Open Knowledge has recently released a baseline study on how 𝗟𝗼𝘄-𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝗿𝗯𝗶𝘁 (𝗟𝗘𝗢) 𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘁 was rolled out in six countries.

The growing intermittency of…conventional nuclear energy. www.reuters.com/business/ene...

Low Danube river levels force Romania to shut down both of its nuclear power reactors

Romania will shut down its ‌second nuclear reactor on the Danube river, the energy ministry said on Wednesday, three days after decades-low river levels forced it to shut down the first.

reuters.com

"As Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Asia found in a recent investigation, just five US tech giants — Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle — are hiding an estimated $1.65 trillion in debt that doesn’t appear on balance sheets. futurism.com/artificial-i...

AI Companies Are Trying to Hide a Staggering Amount of Debt

AI companies are pouring tens of billions of dollars into enormous data centers. They're being built on top of a mountain of hidden debt.

futurism.com

You should probably stop sharing personal information with AI chatbots. By @regret.bsky.social:

Private Claude Chats Exposed in Google and Bing Search Results

The screwup shows how tricky it can be to stop web crawlers from making ostensibly private conversations with AI chatbots entirely too public.

wired.com

Sensible policy klaxon 🚨 Currently, if a 16 year old chooses to stay in school/college, their family can keep claiming benefits as before (notably child benefit). If they opt for an apprenticeship, the benefits stop. The system discourages apprenticeships. The DWP just announced a fix 🧵

"With its carbon content similar to wood, it's an ideal and useful CO2 storage material, with approx. 1.5 kg CO2 per kg sequestered, together with a wood frame this amounts to around 88kg/m2 climate relief. Only it grows back much faster on a field than a tree in the forest" #strawbuilding

Michael Burchert@michaelburchert.bsky.social · 3y ago

I wrote a #Strawbuilding article for your coffee break, feel free to connect with me, let's work towards climate positive construction. www.linkedin.com/pulse/strawb...

✍️ The Most Important Trainer You've Never Heard Of... The story of how an obscure sneaker that didn't even carry the logo of the company that made it, helped to change the world - in ways we're still reckoning with even today... An essay👇 edconway.substack.com/p/the-most-i...

The Most Important Trainer You've Never Heard Of

This is the story of how an obscure sneaker that didn't even carry the logo of the company that made it, helped to change the world - in ways we're still reckoning with even today...

edconway.substack.com

Extremely clear summary of why the Digital Omnibus is more a complication than a simplification. Personal data is the Lego brick of the EU acquis and were suddenly knocking a leg off.

Tech Policy Press@techpolicypress.bsky.social · last wk.

The Digital Omnibus reopens central parts of the GDPR. Aida Ponce Del Castillo argues changes to foundational legal concepts have consequences that reach well beyond the regulation itself.

Swallow over wheat. Took a few attempts! #ukwildlife #shropshirebirds #Nature #wildlife #birdphotography #UKBirding #birds #photography

A Bordeaux City Council spokesperson told Sky News it is "currently studying scenarios for all possible ways the fire could evolve". This includes a total evacuation of the city, if needed.

Stay away! Bordeaux official warns holidaymakers as wildfire rages

Almost 300,000 people in France and Spain have been evacuated as fires rage - with authorities in one French region telling holidaymakers to stay away. Follow the latest updates.

news.sky.com

I join you from the Blaenavon wildfire in Southeast Wales, brought to you by BP, Shell and Equinor. Though it does not look dramatic, the fire has been out of control for days - for a very particular reason. 🧵

UK peat bogs store as much carbon as all the trees in the UK, France & Germany combined. Only 22% of UK peatlands are in a near natural or rewetted condition. £47m was pledged by the gov for peatland restoration - a mere ~£15 per hectare. carboncopy.eco/takeaction/r... www.gov.uk/government/n...

Dave Vetter@davidrvetter.bsky.social · 2w ago

I join you from the Blaenavon wildfire in Southeast Wales, brought to you by BP, Shell and Equinor. Though it does not look dramatic, the fire has been out of control for days - for a very particular reason. 🧵

Limiting warming to 1.5°C was initially motivated by efforts to protect small island nation states from disastrous sea level rise. It's clear we have greatly underestimated loss and damage to the world's richest nations. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

More than 200,000 people flee or lock down as wildfires sweep France and Spain

‘Highly unpredictable’ blaze forces evacuation of Cap Ferret on French coast and Spain declares national emergency

theguardian.com

Renewables are now the world's largest source of electricity – and the main source of new supplies

Observe the rank anthropomorphization here. Models don't "conclude" anything, nor do they "hack", "wriggle", or "cheat". You simply can't write clear informative articles about this stuff if you displace agency away from the people (organized into corporations) responsible. /fin for now.