🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work.
This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public.
Please spread the word.
🧵 1/4
Oops. Turns out Persona, Discord’s age-verification service, was secretly screening selfies against government watchlists AND accessible by the feds. It's backed by Peter Thiel.
“The state wants to see everything. The corporations want to see everything. And they've learned to work together.”
A UK student in the US went to a protest for five minutes. ICE subpoenaed Google for his private details. Google complied.
theintercept.com/2026/02/10/g...
"Switzerland’s military has terminated its contract with Palantir… following a security audit… concluded that U.S. intelligence agencies could potentially access sensitive Swiss defense data… significant reputational warning for the data analytics firm"
www.newscase.com/palantirs-sw...
#R4Today
A manual for ICE's immigrant-targeting computer system, Palantir ELITE, was leaked today.
Let's look at it, then step back to evaluate how far we've come along a dangerous road and where that road might take us. 🧵
The early results from the one question we ask Primary School teachers here are absolutely fascinating. Comparing KS2 and KS3 teachers' responses is going to be such a BRILLIANT addition to our report! Please share the link below with Primary colleagues!
29.01.2026 19:02 — 👍 2 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
We urgently need a parliamentary debate on Palantir. Please sign this & share with your network. Via @the-citizens.bsky.social & @change.org.
www.change.org/p/hold-a-par...
23.01.2026 21:35 —
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Hayden Kennedy, a Top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2025, reads winning poem 'They say peace came'.
Read this year's winning poems and find out more about the Award: bit.ly/FoyleYoungPoets
In 2020, Renee won the Academy of American Poets Prize.
poets.org/2020-on-lear...
"Key to all of this is understanding that US companies are explicitly going to be used to enforce US national security interests. And that includes the US technology companies that are at the heart of our national infrastructure and embedded into our everyday lives."
03.01.2026 19:52 — 👍 95 🔁 31 💬 4 📌 0
My favourite new year James Tate poem:
The Immortals
None of us have felt good this year:
pus around the eyes,
sores that come and go with no explanation.
But we still believe we will come through it!
I signal this news
by lifting a little finger.
All words containing 'z' in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, in order of occurrence. All mentions of 'Ebenezer' picked out in black.
23.12.2025 20:10 — 👍 17 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
Wrote about books for the Year in Review for Art Review @artreview.bsky.social
On corporate publishing, small presses & the many excellent books that were published in this otherwise cursed year 2025
artreview.com/shitty-cakes...
Uk to rejoin Erasmus scheme - set to be confirmed formally tomorrow
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Colorful glass bowl with thin, vertical, multicolored bands curving around the interior and exterior, creating a marbled, striped pattern in greens, blues, purples, browns, yellows, and white, shown on a plain gray background with a soft shadow underneath.
Colorful glass bowl with thin, vertical, multicolored bands curving around the interior and exterior, creating a marbled, striped pattern in greens, blues, purples, browns, yellows, and white, shown on a plain gray background with a soft shadow underneath.
Fascinating world of ancient glass: The skill of ancient glassmakers never ceases to amaze me.
This a magnificent #Roman striped mosaic bowl was made of preformed rods and canes fused on or in a mold.
Dating late 1st c. BC/early 1st c AD.
Timeless beauty!
📷 Corning Museums of Glass
🏺
Picture of anti-Digital ID protestors and the caption: "If Keir Starmer's Digital ID is the Question, then Tony Blair is the answer" Carole Cadwalladr on Labour's worst idea
A "techno-authoritarian's wet dream": @carolecadwalla.bsky.social for the Nerve on digital ID
www.thenerve.news/p/digital-id...
Brexit has caused almost twice as much damage to the UK economy than estimated by official forecasts, according to new paper from a group of experts including a senior Bank of England economist
21.11.2025 09:30 — 👍 1624 🔁 964 💬 90 📌 244
This one by Helen Mort!
09.11.2025 09:13 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
At @engmediacentre.bsky.social
we've been doing a survey of teachers' views on the current state of English teaching. We've had a great response but we'd love more, incl more from out of London. If you're an English teacher please do it. It doesn't take long! www.surveymonkey.com/r/EngTeach2025
CALLING ALL YOUNG POETS
The deadline for entries to the Eric Gregory Awards is 31 October.
It is awarded for a collection by poets under the age of 30.
Winners of the Eric Gregory Awards are invited to a free solo week residency at Thomas Cottage.
Funeral programme for Chris Holifield, with a photo of Chris smiling.
Happy National Poetry Day! Started the day by saying goodbye to the incredible Chris Holifield, a tremendous force for good in the poetry world and a mentor to many. She'll be much missed.
Now on to games, workshops and performances in the Poetry Cafe, which feels fitting.
Right. A bit more about what we’re up to.
Would love feedback, do stick a comment at the end. And do please consider signing up to find out more www.thenerve.news
open.substack.com/pub/broligar...
This is sad. Lovely tributes to Chris Holifield who died Sept 3.
childrenspoetrysummit.com/2025/09/25/c...
Ok. They’ve pissed me off.
I’m back to tell you 3 things about ID cards:
1. Migrants ALREADY HAVE biometric ID cards & govts have been trying to digitise them for years w repeated fuckups & failures causing complete chaos - they don’t work, you do not want that system for you.
Just arrived from the printers.
The Book of Bogs began as a community response & has grown beyond the Walshaw Moor into a wider celebration & campaign for bogs & other peatland ecologies.
This was the most brilliant crowdfunded project, with over 40 contributions from artists & poets.
OUT NOW.
This year’s Keats-Shelley Memorial Prizes are now open. Themes are dystopia / utopia
I’m glad to be judging the poetry prize again with Will Kemp. Closing date 2nd February and more info here
keats-shelley.org/prizes/keats...
Shame on Downing Street for going along with this. So much for being committed to a free press
18.09.2025 08:00 — 👍 7373 🔁 2552 💬 524 📌 280
Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.
OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.
