Gareth Cooper

Cinemas and unions sound alarms over Netflix-Warner Bros. deal Hollywood unions and trade groups raised concerns about the proposed tie-up between Netflix and Warner Bros.' film and TV studios, HBO and HBO Max.

Cinemas and unions sound alarms over Netflix-Warner Bros. deal

Europe will be 'unrecognizable' in 20 years due to immigration, White House strategy document claims Political experts told NBC News that the reports' language regarding "civilization erasure" and immigration echoes "great replacement theory."

Cool that a racist false conspiracy theory is now official U.S. policy, because the people who peddled it are now in charge. www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

The new National Security Strategy is a propaganda document, designed to be widely read. It is also a performative suicide. Hard to think of another great power ever abdicating its influence so quickly and so publicly. It will be worth following the reactions around the world, not just in Europe.

BBC Radio 3
Late Junction

Pablo Diserens joins Verity Sharp to discuss symphonic landscapes and documenting environmental loss.

Getting caught up on some eps, and wow do I always enjoy an opportunity to learn from Chris Gilliard.

As the year winds down, I wanted to get an update on how things are going with the digital sovereignty effort in Europe.

Unfortunately, it’s facing challenges — and being coopted by interests that want to use it to promote deregulation and EU tech with virtually all the same problems as US tech.

Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man's Meta Smart Glasses on Subway A New York subway rider has accused a woman of breaking his Meta smart glasses. She was later hailed as a hero.

In terms of what’s understood to be socially acceptable behavior, normalizing the filming/taking pictures of people in public who are minding their own business (and putting it online) is one of the worst developments of the past 15 years.

Haiti whose travelling fans Trump has banned from the tournament.

This wildly tacky World Cup draw is a grimly fascinating preview of what happens if the aesthetics of fascism finally get their way.

Mark Sinker | Glitchcore Bosch Above Côte Brasserie in Kingston upon Thames, overlooking its Riverside Walk, there was for a week in mid-November a...

‘Was the mural in Kingston ever meant to be looked at carefully, even? Or was it a bogus inkblot test intended to be misread in multiple ways?’

Mark Sinker on a disturbing festive mural:

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...

Hey, there is a mention of climate change in the National Security Strategy.

YouTube video by B Team Films Privacy People

I'm honored to be featured in @sbolinger.bsky.social's excellent new film "Privacy People," which tells the story of privacy in our modern world through the people who work in the field. The link is to a bit where I try to explain why privacy matters. I hope you enjoy it! youtu.be/EqZOzwVaZp8?...

The Ultimate Risk: Recursive Self-Improvement What happens when AI R&D starts snowballing at machine speed?

OpenAI just said it's working on AI capable of recursive self-improvement, while the chief scientist of another AI company pursuing this, Anthropic, says it's "the ultimate risk".

Read about how AI R&D could start snowballing at machine speed:

99 UK politicians have now backed our campaign!

Lord Berkeley of Knighton just joined our campaign calling for binding regulation on the most powerful AI systems.

This is the first such coalition of lawmakers to acknowledge the extinction risk posed by AI!

An illegal landfill

Baroness Sheehan, Chair of the Environment + Climate Change Committee has written to the EA expressing concern that the Agency had not shared information about some illegal landfill sites which the Committee learned of via reports in the press.
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cdn.roxhillmedia.com/production/e...

Remarks on Internet Freedom

6/In many ways, it is the mirror image of the Clinton internet freedom speech. The US sought to use its tech dominance to upend politics in autocracies. Now, these tools will be turned against our closest allies.
2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/20...

1/Quick thoughts of implications of US National Security Strategy for Europe -- weaponized interdependence meets nationalist international. The US will use its tools (economic, technology, and financial dominance) to press for far right agenda.
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

International Criminal Court considers genocide can be committed through cyber attacks on critical infrastructure like power grids, water supply, and hospitals. www.icc-cpi.int/sites/defaul...

Every word of this. It's just so weird to keep having to explain to apparently ordinary people that I have left Twitter for the same reason I refuse to take out a subscription to Stormfront, and to feel that they *still* don't really get it.

”How do I make my boss happy?”

Trump admin may deny H-1B visas to people who worked in content moderation, report says The admin says officials should consider rejecting content moderators.

Trump wants to prevent people who worked in fact-checking or combating misinformation from entering this country.

That should tell you everything you know about his relationship to the truth.

www.theverge.com/news/838489/...

ah, only real books for me, but I have just found a copy somewhere, looking forward to reading when it arrives!

Home Office admits facial recognition tech issue with black and Asian subjects Calls for review after technology found to return more false positives for ‘some demographic groups’ on certain settings

"The racial bias in these stats shows the damaging real-life impacts of letting police use facial recognition without proper safeguards in place."
- Charlie Whelton, Policy and Campaigns Officer

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Trying to find a copy of this in the UK, only available through Az here (sorry nope!), unless someone knows better?

Farage has been dismissing evidence of Russian ties to the Salisbury Novichok attack since 2018 🧐

The cable, sent to all U.S. missions on December 2, orders U.S. consular officers to review resumes or LinkedIn profiles of H-1B applicants - and family members who would be traveling with them - to see if they have worked in areas that include activities such as misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance and online safety, among others.

Holy shit.

Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Europeans are waking up this morning to find the new US National Security Strategy (quietly) released. And what it has to say on Europe could not be clearer. On the „stark prospect of civilizations erasure“ for example. 👇

Without sim cards, we would never have got @sallyhayd.bsky.social's reporting from people in Libyan detention centres, which made up the bulk of her book, My Fouth Time We Drowned, the definitive account of exactly this kind of migration.

Home Office post from twitter Home Office @ukhomeoffice People-smugglers rely on their phones and social media to recruit illegal migrants for Channel crossings. Illegal migrants' mobile phones will now be seized and mouth searches will be carried out to locate hidden SIM cards and gather intelligence to secure smuggler arrests. NEW POWERS TO SEARCH ILLEGAL MIGRANTS

Not to be overly obvious here, but many people seeking asylum need phones to keep in touch with loved ones, access crucial information etc. Having a phone isn't a "luxury item" anymore. It is a necessity for many people. Taking it away has serious implications.

RoboCop statue rises in Detroit: ‘big, beautiful, bronze piece of art’ A 15-year quest ends with a monument, drawing crowds and nostalgia as Detroit embraces its cult-film past

RoboCop statue rises in Detroit: ‘big, beautiful, bronze piece of art’ www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...