Alison Killing

Iran, Pakistan, Kabul? Grok Maps 3 Different 'Facts' For The Same Viral Video | BOOM Grok hallucinated three conflicting 'facts' about viral video of an Iranian school attack, failing to find its location.

"Faced with viral footage of an attack on an Iranian school, xAI’s chatbot Grok didn't just fail to identify the location—it hallucinated three different and conflicting 'facts' for the same video."

Now imagine this same technology networked into Pentagon command-and-control infrastructure.

A great opportunity here to work with the Amnesty International Evidence Lab to do geospatial analysis to investigate human rights abuses. Deadline 22 March
careers.amnesty.org/jobs/vacancy...

a year is a long time in politics

I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.

And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.

Inside Horden, the County Durham town failed by politics In Horden, County Durham, Westminster slogans have long been left unmet as the population has plummeted.

This sort of framing of stories about 'left behind' places is getting very tired. How have they been 'failed' by politics? They are the product of political choices - which organisations like the BBC have often failed to explain to people.

I had to check the date on this three times

‘At home with Peter Mandelson’ in Times magazine *today*

This is how we cover corruption in Britain? Seriously??

Some good news! Guan Heng has just been granted asylum in the US, although DHS reserve the right to appeal the decision in the next 30 days.

Next Thursday in Cambridge I'll be talking with @foxcahn.bsky.social about his new book on how we can build the technology that meets our actual needs. More below

Newshour Daily News Podcast · Updated Semiweekly · Interviews, news and analysis of the day’s global events.

I spoke to the BBC about Neom - the latest Saudi announcement that they won't be hosting the Asian Winter Games in 2029 after all, as well as what's happening with all the ambitious sci-fi projects that were planned for the region:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/n...

New on FT:

as.ft.com/r/169805cf-5... Nigel Farage attended Davos as adviser to Iranian billionaire

Book Launch: Move Slow and Upgrade Join author Albert Fox Cahn to celebrate the launch of his book, Move Slow and Upgrade

So excited that the UK launch of my first book with the amazing Evan Selinger is just a few days away! If you’re in the UK, please join me and @alisonkilling.bsky.social for this great launch party! And please show publishers to invest in the anti-tech bro narrative by pre-ordering today!

When do we get one of these "nothing happens" decades I keep hearing about? Or even a month. I need some sleep.

Kazakhstan/China: Drop Charges against Activists for Xinjiang Protests (London, January 15, 2026) – Kazakh authorities should drop charges against 18 Kazakh activists who peacefully protested against Chinese government abuses in Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch said today. T...

Kazakh activists face 10 year sentence, prosecuted in Kazakhstan, at Chinese government’s request, for their peaceful protest against crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. Kazakh government should drop charges. Beijing should halt targeting critics abroad.

www.hrw.org/news/2026/01...

Let's fight the spread of misinfo + disinfo by creating a Bluesky Culture of Context for imagery.

Please make a good faith effort to name the SOURCE, even if you don't link to an evil media empire.

For video and photos, CREDIT the creator. No exceptions!

BONUS points: give Date | Time | Location

OSHIT: Seven Deadly Sins of Bad Open Source Research - bellingcat Learning to recognise these widespread mistakes will help you judge the quality of open source analysis — or improve your own.

Good time to repost this
www.bellingcat.com/resources/20...

Residents of a white working-class neighborhood in Amsterdam North attack police with fireworks on NY’s Eve. The city had barred them from lighting a public bonfire because of the danger to neighboring houses.

Nice! I was also there for a new year swim!

The plot against London Distorted attacks by the populist right are really about demography

What the war against London really is about. V good by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social #Giftlink

And on a different note: A v Happy New Year to everyone!

London St Pancras revamp aims to cut Eurostar waiting time to 15 minutes Planned £100mn overhaul of train station will seek to end ‘holding pen’ experience for passengers

Woohoo! Best Christmas present ever:

Thanks for mobilising around this - his hearing is over now and the next one is 12 Jan. They want to send him to Uganda rather than give him asylum.
bsky.app/profile/alis...

Thank you to everyone who has shared this. The hearing is over for today. DHS has filed a motion to pretermit (end Guan's asylum application in the US) and have him sent to Uganda - where he'd be at risk of being sent to China. The hearing to decide that will be held 12 January.

Thank you to everyone who has shared this. The hearing is over for today. DHS has filed a motion to pretermit (end Guan's asylum application in the US) and have him sent to Uganda, where he'd be at risk of being sent to China. The hearing to decide that will be held 12 January.

Thanks Viviana! I'll share updates as I have them.

ICE Holding Chinese Man Who Documented Uyghur Camps Heng Guan is awaiting an immigration hearing on Monday that could lead to his removal from the U.S. and ultimately land him back in China, according to his lawyer and a New York-based activist group.

In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites.

He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him.

www.wsj.com/world/china/...

The team who are working with him have asked that everyone wait and see what happens at the hearing on Monday before doing anything. I'll post updates as I get them and amplify any calls for action that they make. Thank you for asking!

No, his asylum application was still in the process of being decided when he was detained.

Can I message you? What would be the best way to get in touch? My DMs are open.

Yeah - I couldn't quite believe it when I heard he'd been detained by ICE.

Yes, he has a lawyer and the Human Rights in China team is campaigning for him. Chinese human rights experts have also reached out to US lawmakers.

CDA noemt JA21 in kabinet ‘realistische optie’ en voert druk op D66 op De onderhandelingen tussen D66, CDA en VVD over de vorming van een minderheidskabinet zijn nog maar net begonnen of Henri Bontenbal (CDA) zet de formatie al op scherp. Hij wil het radicaal-rechtse JA2...

The whitewashing of JA21 continues - now talked of as a member of a new coalition.

Make no mistake: this is a far right party, with an immigration policy indistinguishable from Wilders; a history of dabbling in conspiracies; a co-leader who’s blatantly antisemitic

www.volkskrant.nl/politiek/cda...