Lo Kapila
@lokapila.bsky.social
Deputy editor and reporter @DublinInquirer, an independent reader-funded newspaper. Tips and feedback welcome at 0873924796 (Whatsapp, Signal, phone, text), and lois@dublininquirer.com.
Ameaka Fatima Nkempu, a Johns Hopkins University researcher in public health, was detained by ICE while boarding a domestic flight. She says she is Cameroonian in a Medium article that she authored. As of Thursday morning, the ICE Online Detainee Locator did not list where she was being held.
Baltimore Banner@thebaltimorebanner.com · 6d agoICE detains Hopkins public health researcher as agency expands airport arrests
In 2021, Meta’s data centre complex in Clonee, Co. Meath, used more water from the mains than Irish Water said was being used by all Irish data centres combined. “Does Irish Water even know how much water data centres are using?”, by @lokapila.bsky.social www.dublininquirer.com/does-irish-w...
![According to Irish Water, as of 2021, data centres across Ireland drank about 810 megalitres of water from the public mains a year – which is about 0.13 percent of overall national supply.
But that same year, Meta reported that it withdrew 928 megalitres of water for its data centres in Clonee in Meath. Planning documents say that it was to rely on water from the mains.
That’s more than Irish Water said was consumed overall in the country that year.
A spokesperson for Irish Water said on 19 June [2026] that it couldn’t lay out its methodology behind the 810 megalitres figure – or give more up-to-date figures on water use by data centres, since the AI boom.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sjznb6msdsbogkbwdorupxz3/bafkreia6pcrfbgpds4s7waaniamogy73earjmu3xzts4mlbj6cet57i4pa)
Amid delays with permit renewals, an immigrant doctor in Ireland can't travel to visit his seriously ill mother. The fix for the backlogged system? “It has to be more people assigned to it,” says Colm Burke, the Fine Gael TD. More here: www.dublininquirer.com/amid-delays-...
Amid delays with permit renewals, an immigrant doctor in Ireland can't travel to visit his seriously ill mother
The fix for the backlogged system? “It has to be more people assigned to it,” says Colm Burke, the Fine Gael TD.
dublininquirer.com
"an audit by Lighthouse Reports of public data on the government’s chosen AI provider shows that its tech misclassified more than a third of 16-year-olds as adults and, in some tests, was shown to give the wrong assessment in 70 per cent of cases" www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Home Office knew AI age checks for migrants were flawed — but rolled it out anyway
Exclusive: Government advisors describe the tool as ‘hideously flawed’ amid concern facial age estimation has ‘baked-in racial bias’ — and can wrongly identify a 14-year-old as an adult
independent.co.uk
Head of Irish Prison Service sought an urgent meeting with justice officials after warning overcrowded jails could not cope with large groups of immigration detainees being held before charter deportation flights. Latest set of FOI records: www.thestory.ie/2026/06/12/i...
I thought this was a really interesting discussion on nuclear, small reactors, and hype. youtube.com/watch?v=75ck...
I have GONE WILD on the 1926 Irish census and have made some fun discoveries: Trinidadian medical students, a Baháʼí couple in Donegal, the Irish widow of an emigré Cossack, and Egyptian sailors in Cork city - among many others.
Great piece in The Journal recently about licences in shared houses, situations where renters are left with very few rights. I wrote about the growth of licenses in Dublin last year — and about how in the wider debate around protections for tenants, licensees have been largely overlooked.
Crucial - and generally totally overlooked part of this story - is *what* the journalists that Labour Together smeared were reporting on How Labour Together used £730k in illegal political donations to boot strap Keir Starmer’s political rise That’s why they were targeted
Peter Geoghegan@petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 6mo agoStarmer needs to commission an independent inquiry into Labour Together- or he too becomes implicated in an increasingly unsustainable cover-up New by me in @theguardian.com on why PM needs to act on Labour Together hiring a PR firm to smear journalists www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
🔴 BREAKING: Labour Together paid controversial PR firm £30k to investigate journalists who were digging into how its undeclared funding Reporters from Sunday Times, Guardian and other outlets targetted *And* Morgan McSweeney knew about it Full story: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/exclusive-...
BREAKING: McSweeney’s think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists
Labour Together put private investigators onto journalists writing about its funding. Starmer's right-hand man knew.
democracyforsale.substack.com
It’s the 9th day of 2026 and ICE has already had its second detention death. open.substack.com/pub/detentio...
Camp Death #2 Buried in the Friday News Dump
Previously Undeportable Cuban died in solitary confinement at Camp East Montana
open.substack.com
🚨🇪🇺 EU cash💰 and taxpayer money in countries such as 🇮🇹Italy and 🇪🇸Spain are flowing to commercial #spyware firms, yet this public funding is not well-known or analysed. 🧵My investigation for @ftm.eu. 👇👇👇 www.ftm.eu/articles/spy...
Spyware industry pockets EU subsidies while snooping on its citizens
The widespread use of commercial spyware for unlawful surveillance across Europe has raised alarm – but the funding of such tools has largely gone under the radar. Follow the Money can reveal how mill...
ftm.eu
“Individuals on the ground sent a message that reached us Monday morning that 1,200 were dead,” Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s executive director, said. “By that evening, they said 10,000. By Tuesday, we couldn’t reach them anymore. We assume our ground contacts are dead.”
Yale lab reports mass killings in Sudan, calls for student activism
The Humanitarian Research Lab was told this week that over 10,000 people in Sudan were killed within three days.
yaledailynews.com
🔴Dominic Cummings Lobbied Officials to Hand ‘Test and Trace’ Contracts to Palantir After Secret Meeting With Peter Thiel Exclusive: Boris Johnson’s advisor pushed for contracts to be handed to companies run by Trump-supporting tech billionaires Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison
Dominic Cummings Lobbied Officials to Hand 'Test and Trace' Contracts to Palantir After Secret Meeting With Peter Thiel
Exclusive: Boris Johnson's senior advisor pushed for Covid contracts to be handed to companies run by Trump-supporting tech billionaires Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison
bylinetimes.com
Footage from the Israeli Occupation Forces assault on #Conscience, shortly before dawn. In international waters, close to Palestinian territorial waters. Another act of state piracy by the rogue, lawless Israeli occupation. www.youtube.com/live/PSQcbIw...
Live from Conscience Boat to Gaza, FFC & TMTG (Live 3)
YouTube video by Freedom Flotilla Coalition
youtube.com
I have approximately zero following on this app, sharing in the hopes it can get in front of the right person. A man I went to college with’s wife was kidnapped by ICE at a green card hearing, and he’s trying to find a reporter who will speak to him about the situation
As profitable energy companies raise customers’ prices, TD says it’s time to bring back price regulation. “We are approaching the point (if we’re not already there) where we can justifiably claim that competition has failed,” says Labour energy spokesperson Ciarán Ahern.
As profitable energy companies raise customers’ prices, TD says it’s time to bring back price regulation
“We are approaching the point (if we’re not already there) where we can justifiably claim that competition has failed,” says Labour energy spokesperson Ciarán Ahern.
dublininquirer.com
In Darndale Park, people fish for carp and pike – but an invasive weed threatens the balance. When people see photos of the impressive specimen caught, they can’t believe it was in Darndale pond, says local Alan Kennedy.
In Darndale Park, people fish for carp and pike – but an invasive weed threatens the balance
When people see photos of the impressive specimen caught, they can’t believe it was in Darndale pond, says local Alan Kennedy.
dublininquirer.com
Some homeless hostels are operating with just one staff member on duty. “That is madness,” says Louisa Santoro, CEO of the Mendicity Institution. “A single person is not a sufficient level of staff to run any homeless service.”
Some homeless hostels are operating with just one staff member on duty
“That is madness,” says Louisa Santoro, CEO of the Mendicity Institution. “A single person is not a sufficient level of staff to run any homeless service.”
dublininquirer.com
Developer Ballymore says it had meetings with ministers, council about its vision for Sheriff Street. They're not on the lobbying register. “For nearly a decade, conversations about the possible demolition of people’s homes have gone on in the background.”
Developer Ballymore says it had meetings with ministers, council about its vision for Sheriff Street. They're not on the lobbying register.
“For nearly a decade, conversations about the possible demolition of people’s homes have gone on in the background,” says Social Democrats Councillor Daniel Ennis.
dublininquirer.com
Barely an hour ago, Palestinian journalist Anas Al-Sharif warned us all: “If this madness doesn’t end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop.” Israel just killed him.
Broadcaster Al Jazeera says its correspondent Anas al-Sharif has been killed in Gaza City, and Israel’s military confirms it.
Al Jazeera says its correspondent Anas al-Sharif has been killed in Gaza, and Israel confirms it
Broadcaster Al Jazeera says its correspondent Anas al-Sharif has been killed in Gaza City, and Israel’s military confirms it.
bit.ly
BREAKING: Met Police arrest 50 of 600-700 ‘terrorist supporters’ before the 2pm chime. “We will keep going. Our numbers are already growing for the next wave of action in September.” Read here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
9 August - arrests RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE Met Police arrest only a fraction of 600-700 ‘terrorist supporters’ UPDATE: As at 3pm Met Police claiming to have made 150 arrests To date police had claimed only to have arrested ...
docs.google.com
Human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger joins Lift The Ban “Proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the government, the group is being punished for exposing Israel’s crimes in Gaza and the UK’s role enabling it – we cannot let our opposition be silenced” www.independent.co.uk/voices/bianc...
Why I am marching for freedom of speech with Palestine Action
Proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the government, the group is being punished for exposing Israel’s crimes in Gaza and the UK’s role enabling it – we cannot let our opposition be silenced, say...
independent.co.uk
‘Gross abuse of state power’: defiance grows over UK ban on Palestine protest group At 81, Deborah Hinton, a former British magistrate who was honoured by the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to the community, seems an unlikely terrorist suspect. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
‘Gross abuse of state power’: defiance grows over UK ban on Palestine protest group
More than 200 have been arrested for alleged support of Palestine Action – and hundreds more are expected to protest on Saturday
theguardian.com
New edition back from the printers today, with a cover image by Pablo Marín García.
“This is my local community. I’m worried about my children.” That’s what a woman told GB News at the anti-migrant protest at the Barbican in London. Problem is, she said the same thing at a protest in Epping days earlier. 🤦 ❌ hopenothate.org.uk/2025/08/05/o...
One Woman, Two Protests, Zero Postcodes in Common: Tommy Robinson associate claims to be ‘concerned local resident’
Yesterday, former academic turned Reform UK cheerleader, Matt Goodwin tweeted a clip from the recent anti-migrant protest at the Barbican in London. “Why are you...
hopenothate.org.uk
NEW: Baby Pereppadan, a Fine Gael councillor, co-owns a company accused of charging nurses unlawful ‘agency fees’. One nurse paid over €3,000 into another Fine Gael councillor’s account as part of the recruitment process. http://jrnl.ie/6784617
Fine Gael councillor co-owns company accused of charging migrant nurses unlawful ‘agency fees’
One nurse paid over €3,000 into another Fine Gael councillor’s account as part of the recruitment process.
jrnl.ie
