Graham Jeffery

The UK had by my calculations, per capita, twice the number of fatalities as the Republic of Ireland. Ireland wasn’t exactly gold standard. Experts were begging the UK govt & opposition to follow basic science, to no avail. The UK scientific establishment was silent. Only Independent SAGE spoke out

*gasp*

Which will pop first—AI or Trump? Two enormous bubbles threaten everything around us.

So which will happen first?

Will the elites recognize that Trump wants to be our Putin, and there's room for only one Putin in a country? And they'll act, or at least back off their enthusiastic support, before the windows start opening around them.

Or will the entire economy double over?

Why the Democrats were right to force the Republicans hand on the gov't shutdown. Trump is freaking out because the GOP will be blamed for bankrupting many Americans over healthcare. The Democrats should force a full and humiliating climb down on Trump and the GOP.

“There’s a baby!”

Guns drawn. Windows smashed. With a 1 month old in the car. (They did this as he was coming home from an immigration court appointment— which is illegal in Colorado: coloradosun.com/2025/10/01/i...)

The Billionaire Behind Trump’s Deal for Universities

the usual story. rich guy wants to punish universities for not clamping down on pro-palestinian protests and for doing too much to recruit minorities. at base these guys want the top tier of american universities to become, once more, safe-spaces for their dunderheaded failsons

Many American Jews sharply critical of Israel on Gaza, Post poll finds Most Jews say Israel is committing war crimes — and 39 percent say genocide — while often distinguishing between the country and its leadership.

Per @washingtonpost.com: New polling shows most U.S. Jews say Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza — and 39% say genocide. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

"They're trying to convince people they can't do the things they've been doing easily for years - to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies - to write that for you." We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, "that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won't know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can't do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat. People are already doing this. You won't have to process grief, because you'll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via AI video call every day. One of the ways it's going to destroy humans, long before there's a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people." - author and filmmaker Justine Bateman from a piece by Emine Saner for the Guardian

Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman on generative AI

Nigel Farage Is a Racist The media is refusing to state the most bleedingly obvious facts about a man whose entire career has been devoted to pursuing a racist political agenda

www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/nigel-fara...

How Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss have taken the NY Times’ campus concern trolling to new heights in just 2 years

With news that Bari Weiss is going to be the new EIC at CBS News, I wanted to reup this piece I wrote 6 years ago about how she and Bret Stephens helped turn NYT into a moral panic factory www.mediamatters.org/new-york-tim...

Petition: Protect Legal Migrants: do not implement the 10-Year ILR proposal We urge the UK Government to scrap plans to extend ILR from 5 to 10 years. We feel that legal migrants, especially care workers, followed the rules and built lives here under the 5-year promise. We th...

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this

AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.

Electricity now costs 267% more (!!) for 1 month vs. what it cost 5 years ago near data center hotspots. Awesome reporting from Josh Saul @dinabass.bsky.social Leonardo Nicoletti @naurtorious.bsky.social Demetrios Pogkas (gift link) www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Oxfam GB | Chancellor Rachel Reeves: Tax Wealth Now It’s time to tax the super-rich. Demand a Wealth Tax today.

www.oxfam.org.uk/get-involved...

If your elderly relatives started telling you about AI videos they had watched saying that "medbeds" would fix everyone's health problems, you'd start to look into assisted living and power of attorney. Trump has the nuclear codes.

The President of the United States has posted a fake AI video of himself announcing a non-existent policy to give people access to a fake miracle cure that also doesn't exist truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT... We are fully through the looking glass, folks.

UK government urged to restore Electoral Commission’s independence to protect democracy Oversight of watchdog could be abused by a future authoritarian government, report warns

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

One CNN investigation has identified “more than 100 US citizen children, from newborns to teenagers, who have been left stranded without parents because of immigration actions this year …”

Starmer’s desperate rush for digital IDs is a recipe for repression ID cards won’t reduce migration and will put trans rights at risk. But that’s not the biggest cost of Starmer’s half-baked scheme, says Cat MacLean.

goodlawproject.org/starmers-des...

I have a whole range of observations about digital ID, but the main one is it's a mistake to launch a complex, measurable, highly scrutinisable infrastructure project to achieve a specific measurable target when there is no evidence that the complex project will result in the measurable outcome

If we don’t start treating our media system as core democratic infrastructure, we’re in real trouble. Hyper consolidated media conglomerates are accountable to their shareholders, not to the free expression that is the lifeblood of their industry and our democracy. My latest:

Banks said "a potential Reform government should scrap the Financial Conduct Authority, the City regulator, along with media and internet watchdog Ofcom, the Electoral Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority."

Rather telling selection of regulators, there

This would be extremely welcome news if it proves to be the case

She Broke Off Two Engagements. She Couldn’t Commit. Now She’s Dating Chatbots Instead. As chatbot romance grows more common, women are redefining what they want from a partner—even if they are just ones and zeros.

This is not a romance. Nobody is "in love" with apps. There are no A.I. boyfriends. You cannot "date" a chatbot. Accepting this framing and treating it as real is tech-industry propaganda. slate.com/technology/2...

United Utilities underspent £52m on vital work to reduce sewage pollution, FoI reveals Privatised water company criticised over efforts to connect private septic tanks to mains and cut pollution

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

UK universities cut back on crucial research because of reduced funding One in five institutions spending less, including in areas such as cancer and heart disease, says report

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Taxpayers lose £400m as result of investment fund set up by Rishi Sunak Report shows 334 companies backed by Future Fund, set up in May 2020 by then chancellor, have since gone under

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Can you make it to the end of this column? Understanding the new economics of attention

Can you make it to the end of this column? 
economist.com/finance-and-...

Bit strange to hear the Today programme interviewing the CEO of Newsmax like he's a public intellectual, then interviewing a Labour minister like he's a war criminal

When Karl Rove is the voice of reason you really know US democracy is in big trouble