William Raffle

Post Grad Historian @sheffielduni interested in #VastEarlyAmerica, Seven Years War and #newfrance. Editor and translator

[Jason Kint @jason_kint]

If you're a business or artist with intellectual property, watch the clock.

10 days until Meta claims the right to scrape your website to develop its AI. Your consent? Apparently unnecessary. All it takes is someone sharing a link on Facebook or Instagram - or you using Meta's services.

[Mark Ruffalo @MarkRuffalo]

In case you were wondering if Larry Ellison would use his partial ownership of TIKTok to shut down the exposure of his billionaire buddies and their weirdness, corruption and grifting … wonder no more. TikTok just shut down the media page of the world renowned, Oscar winning director Alex Gibney’s documentary film “MUSK”. The comprehensive documentary on all things Elon. It’s more f&@&’d then you can imagine. The best thing any of us can do now is to go see it! It will blow your mind. Billionaire broke mind virus. Hear it from the people who have known Elon over the years. #BrokeMindVirus

[Jason Kint @jason_kint]

%$&*!!! whoa.
This reads that Meta is looking to grant itself the rights to scrape websites across the open web - and train Meta's AI - once a company uses Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or other Meta services after October 30, 2026. So every biz.
Read that again. Outrageous. 1/5

[Climate Majority Project @CMP_voice]

Download our latest report: https://t.co/Ec3cdQn04P

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities.

Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise

https://t.co/AfwPdlw1S4

[William Raffle @WilliamRaffle]

@KKriegeBlog Never learnt anything about them until University. Very obscure here. Often think of how little is talked of that area of England in Lincolnshire in the national conversation - especially as the later centre of nonconformist pilgrims.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

It’s pretty nuts. Tom Watson’s very first intervention in his new job at spytech firm Palantir is to write a letter to his former colleague @labourlewis.bsky.social
detailing all the times the firm has monitored his anti-Palantir activities

https://t.co/sZqB2WOxpp

[William Raffle @WilliamRaffle]

@profanityswan Love you two. Downloaded hours of mince before holiday to China. Listened to nonstop podcasts on an overnight train where I couldn’t catch a wink of sleep. Time well spent.

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

Palantir didn’t hire a former Labour deputy leader for his coding skills. It hired him for access.

Tom Watson’s move is more than a private career choice. It’s the revolving door in action and another blow to public trust.

The integrity gap won’t close until politicians pick a side.

My piece for the Guardian: https://t.co/RRp5ZIrh59

[Paul Holden @pauleholden]

Remember last week when Sky published that to secret Starmer Number 10 strategy document? And they used it to explain how it showed Burnham was continuity Starmerism?

Well if read that joyous document (which nobody seemed to do) you would have found out that many of Number 10's plans for a "reset" to grow the economy were basically plans to trash the climate and lived environment.

My favourite plan was to accelerate the building of data centres through the use of "behind the meter" gas supplies. What's that, you ask in unison?

Well that would involve allowing developers to build their OWN gas-fired power stations on the site of data centres.

That's right - literally encouraging a massive expansion of local mini-power stations run on fossil fuels, pumping out emissions and increasing local pollution levels, to build mega-data centres... so that people like the Labour Party candidate in Holborn & St Pancras can use water-intensive AI to make a video about putting Thames Water "on notice."

In the US, where this is already happening, studies show that data centres and mini-power stations pumping out pollution are sited in lower income neighbourhoods with predominantly black and Latino populations. And we know how much the Labour Right lives to copy America.

So maybe Zack doesn't talk about the environment enough for your liking. But it seems whenever the Labour Party does, it's to explain why tech oligarchs need to trash it for short-term economic growth.

[Decker Eveleth @dex_eve]

Seems bad.

[Reid Southen @Rahll]

Timnit has been right since the beginning. Google fired her for it.

[Ed Conway @EdConwaySky]

👀
Global shipping industry group makes its first public intervention since it was founded 60 years ago, to warn that the rules governing global shipping are breaking down.
"Without maritime trade... the global economy as we know it would come to a sudden halt".

[Ed Conway @EdConwaySky]

📖 PUBLICATION DAY
Today a book I've spent 2yrs working on is finally out.
I'll have more to say about it later on, but TRADE WORLD is a brand new story about the hidden underbelly of the modern world.
A sort of companion to Material World. But SO much more.
I hope you like it!

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

"Members of the public were advised not to swim at a section of a Sussex beach after sewage was discharged into the water."

Well it was the bank holiday, what have you come to expect, and accept.

https://t.co/dvVr5opCTe

[We Own It @We_OwnIt]

🚨BREAKING
Andy Burnham has just announced that he will put forward plans for taking our water into public control in his 10-year plan later this year

Let us be clear, public control is not public ownership. We already have public control of water now - it's called regulation. The solution to the crisis we face in our water system is public ownership.

Thames Water households cannot wait for the government's 10-year plan. Thames Water is insolvent now. Andy Burnham must take Thames Water into public hands now.

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

I'm rather liking this I have to say.....

[George Eaton @georgeeaton]

Ulez has delivered remarkable public health gains in a short period: air pollution deaths have fallen by 40% since 2019 and children's lung health is improving.

Sadiq Khan deserves credit for defying Labour pressure to U-turn after the Uxbridge defeat. https://t.co/WoClf1JUr0

[Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @MayorofLondon]

This stopped me in my tracks.

An independent study by @QMUL has found that after ULEZ was introduced, children’s lungs grew faster in Central London and have now caught up with children outside of the capital. Incredible.