Alberto Muti

If only there was a treaty with clear provisions forbidding it and setting out how to verify such an allegation.

If only.

I'm sure that if anyone had aired this idea before now, both the US and China would have RUSHED to ratify it.

Alas, we only thing of good ideas way late.

I'll chip in to make it every month.

Happy new year!

Get started the right way (?) with this VERTIC/KCL on all things BWC #verification: proliferation scenarios, revisiting #VEREX and impact+challenges of #Emergingtech and #AI

Co-written by our own Hailey Wingo, @filippalentzos.bsky.social, Jez Littlewood,and myself.

Not on here as much, because I have a newborn

But:
International law matters

The norms strongmen scoff at were put in place as a bulwark against barbarism

What's happening in (to) Venezuela is illegal - regardless of what you think of Maduro

Equivocating on it by world leaders is appeasement

I know, incredible how

*check notes*

basically all major cities in continental Europe make it work.

Really makes you think.

This is a clown-car government elected on a seriousness ticket iandunt.substack.com/p/a-clown-go...

I'd be seriously surprised if terraced house approached anywhere near the density of even mid-rise residential flat blocks.

But again, I think that conversation - and that image of what a city looks like - is utterly unimaginable to brits! Not sure why, I put it down to culture clash mostly.

My most "you didn't grow up here" opinion is that entire neighborhoods of charming but inefficient and poorly maintained Victorian terrace houses should be demolished and replaced with 4-6 floors flat blocks (+ necessary parks and amenities) all over London and likely beyond.

This is very good indeed on how Mahmood talks about race. To suggest that immigration policy and racism are linked "reflects this government’s biggest failing, which is that it is essentially incapable of saying that racism is wrong, full stop".

Labour Peer Who Fled The Nazis Condemns His Party's Immigration Crackdown Lord Dubs said he was "lost for words".

Alf Dubs is a 92 year old man who spent his life fighting for refugees, and in particular for refugee children. He fought the Tories tooth and nail during their last three terms, only to see Labour adopt far-right policies on immigration.

“But to use children as a weapon ... I’m lost for words.”

🇰🇭 VERTIC is at the NACW of Cambodia for a 3-day workshop to assist with the drafting of biosecurity legal measures to further implement the BWC in the national system of Cambodia. We are looking forward to working with participants over the next three days! Thank you to @norad.no for their support!

Good to see some Labour MPs speaking out about today's announcement. I've already written to my own MP @matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social and hope he will join the ranks of those doing the right thing.

Confiscating jewellery from survivors of a war zone makes you look like a fucking Nazi. And the obscene thing is, that is the intention. It's there to look appropriately harsh. Indecent. Filthy. A moral stain. And no-one of good character would have ever proposed such a thing in the first place.

I've long ago accepted that it's probably Perfectly Fine for people with extremely common jobs (except for enshittification, AI bots, etc - but that's a given on all social media), but it is hilarious how quickly it breaks down if you have a more niche or specialise profile.

The breadth of "You have no idea what crazy shit we've tried and shelved decades ago, youngling. Your stupid idea is both stupid and not new. Better people than you have been this stupid." in the nuclear weapons program is quite impressive.

King's researchers launch tracker to monitor disinformation about chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats | King's College London King’s researchers have launched a new Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Threats (CBRN) Disinformation Tracker on Monday 20 October 2025, at the margins of the UN General Assembly’s First...

King's researchers launch tracker to monitor disinformation about chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats

www.kcl.ac.uk/news/kings-r...

Five Star Movement is *not* left-wing

They claimed to be "neither left nor right", and had left-ish language on environment, nimbyism, and some economic issues, but on most areas they would break right in the end. I mean, they formed a govt with Salvini's Lega.

Also, consistently pro-Russia.

The Five Star Movement is *not* a left-wing movement,

They claimed to be "neither left nor right", and had accreted some left-ish language on environment, nimbyism, and some economic proposals, but on most issues they would break right in the end. Also, they formed a govt with Salvini's Lega.

I think it was a tweet a few years ago that explained it all for me: modern conservatism wants an out group which the law binds but does not protect, and an in group which the law protects but does not bind.

2 million? I've seen places in london that go for that amount and are half as big and not even a millionth as beautiful.

What if #CBRN #disinformation was traceable? Join us this Monday to learn more #UNGA80 #FirstCommittee

As someone who is (as of 2 weeks ago) British, but not home grown, I second "what is this bullshit".

Timely and important, be sure to follow the Bulletin's investigations into how AI is shaping our world and the future.

Reminder of this event tomorrow!

A good person to contribute further (i don't know how much he's using bluesky though) is @persbo.bsky.social

Ouch, just ouch.

You are very kind, Marty - I agree it's black magic, and I'm no wizard!

Your answer to @cherylrofer.bsky.social seems right-sounds like the thermal/visual double flash. The (simplistic) one I have for seismic is that nuclear explosions are sudden while earthquakes show a ramp-up of sorts.

Obvious answer to that is that not everybody can demand to see identification documents; again, these are very simple things that other countries have figured out aaaages ago.

I realise the audience for this would just be "me, and also maybe other foreigners" but I would love to read something on why Brits, who are happy to live in a country where their every movement outside is filmed by CCTV, hate the idea of having ID cards, something plenty of countries happily have

With address registered on ID, 2nd factor wouldn't add anything.

I had a landlord who cheated credit card companies by creating fake tenants and providing their fake contracts as proof of address (it was, somehow, not his most repulsive trait). System's bad.