Owen Clegg

Planning editor on Newsday, the world's largest breakfast programme on the BBC World Service. From London to Montreal and back again.

[Bruce @bruce_barrett]

I don’t want to hear about my carbon footprint ever again. https://t.co/cs8t9619dx

[Katherine Argent @effthealgorithm]

Search is full of ads and wrong answers. Every other email is an ad. Prime Video charges you and shows ads. Paramount? Ads. Peacock? YouTube? Hulu? Ads followed by more ads. Netflix full of ads. Meta and X, every other thing is an ad. Pinterest is nothing but ads. AI is in everything. AI finishes sentences incorrectly and won’t stop. AI reads your email and search history to target you with more ads. Every time you open an app or visit a site there’s an update making it worse. In a hurry? First, click here to agree to terms you don’t have time to read and must accept. You need an account to do that. Change your temporary password. Enter your 2FA code. Check your email and enter that code. Now use a passkey. Your password is too simple to remember. Change it. No, not like that. Now log on. Enter your 2FA code. Check your email for a code… Welcome back! We’ve updated our terms of service and privacy policy (you have none). Subscribe to the site. Subscribe to Netflix. Subscribe to toilet paper. Subscribe to these groceries. Pay a membership fee for the right to subscribe then tip your driver who delivers the subscriptions your membership lets you subscribe to. Time to work? We’ve got to update your laptop and will slow down everything you do until you agree to update. But first, click here to agree. Update installed — your laptop’s broken now. It doesn’t matter, since your boss just replaced you with AI. Go to your phone to complain on social media. Wait, your phone needs an update so we can add more AI. Click here. Oh sorry, your phone can’t handle this update. Now it’s useless. Go get the newest phone. Here’s a text from a friend, an email, a voice mail they left three days ago but you didn’t see until now because of sync problems with the cloud. It’s their GoFundMe. Their MLM. Their Patreon. Never mind, you didn’t respond to their text within 9 minutes and now you’re no longer friends. They blocked you. Make new friends. Download this app to find people in your area. In your neighborhood. On your street. Two doors down from you. Do you know this person yet, we think you’d get along. You need an account to use this app. That username is taken. Enter a password. Not that one, you used it on another site. You need to be connected to WiFi to download the app. Allow the app to connect to other devices on your network. Allow the app to access your contacts, know your precise location, store your credit card details. Oops, sorry, we got hacked now all that info is available on the web. There’s a class action suit. You can join. It’ll take a decade to get your $3.73 share of the ten billion settlement. We’ll send it via PayPal or deposit it to your bank, just tell us those details. Oh no, another hack. That info is circulating now, too. Here’s a spam call, a spam email, a spam text. Why are you angry? Why are you talking about getting rid of your phone? Why don’t you like AI, it lets us make all of this easier? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? This is progress. You’ll be left behind. Do you want to be left behind? Do you???

[Owen Clegg @ojclegg]

@ByCarlosGuillen would you like to speak to the BBC World Service? Pls DM me

[Owen Clegg @ojclegg]

#Israel defence minister has announced that #Iran security chief, Ali Larijani, is dead. Israel Katz said the commander of the feared Basij paramilitary force was also killed in an overnight airstrike and he instructed the military to “continue hunting down” Iran’s leadership.

[Shayan Sardarizadeh @Shayan86]

This war might have already broken the record for the highest number of AI-generated videos and images that have gone viral during a conflict.

Interestingly, I said the exact same thing right after the 12-day war in June.

Welcome to our brave new world of AI misinformation.

[Shortwave Observer @shortwave78]

👀⚠️
The mysterious Farsi-language Numbers-Station on 7910kHz, received in 🇮🇹Milan at 18:00 UTC on March 3, 2026.
Probably the most interesting radio signal in recent times.

[Samuel Bendett @sambendett]

‘We don’t have infantry’: Ukraine’s war machine evolves into machine war https://t.co/07WovJk84k

[3rd Line Ehlers @Press1forClout]

Coming this Sunday 🇺🇸

[Owen Clegg @ojclegg]

World events via an anime treatment courtesy of @PsyopAnime #Iran

[ME24 - Middle East 24 @MiddleEast_24]

Iranian revolutionaries strike back at the Islamic Republic — using AI

[ME24 - Middle East 24 @MiddleEast_24]

Iranian revolutionaries strike back at the Islamic Republic — using AI

[Antonello Guerrera @antoguerrera]

A pretty prophetic @rogerboyes in the Times today
#venezuela #Maduro #regimechange

[Mark Urban @MarkUrban01]

Large scale US military operations have begun in Venezuela - with special ops forces apparently operating in Caracas & multiple strikes by air launched weapons. The apparent objective is regime change - though the US does not yet have the forces in place to take the country over

[Le360 @Le360fr]

LUMUMBA est en place pour supporter les Léopards du Congo 🇨🇩 face au Botswana

[Owen Clegg @ojclegg]

Special guest @MezahiMaher on @bbcworldservice Newsday as we celebrate the opening of the #AFCON2025 here in #Morocco

[Maher Mezahi @MezahiMaher]

If you’re up, we’re live on BBC World Service, Newsday with @JamesCopnall

[Owen Clegg @ojclegg]

I’m in #Morocco for the opening game of the Africa Cup of Nations #AFCON2025. The hosts take on Comoros at the newly opened Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in #Rabat. I’m expecting an amazing atmosphere.

[James Landale @BBCJLandale]

Amid all the guff, just this: I am proud to work for BBC News & even prouder to work alongside so many outstanding colleagues. We are not perfect; we must always strive to be better. But in a darkening world, we remain a shaft of light. Worth mulling. All best from Kyiv.

[James Copnall @JamesCopnall]

The stories coming out of Tawila are horrifying - see for example this piece: https://t.co/sxb68OBaSb
And the big question remains: what about the quarter of a million or so civilians in El Fasher still unaccounted for? #KeepEyesOnSudan

[Sudan News أخبار السودان 🇸🇩 @Sudan_tweet]

A video shows the second-in-command of the #RSF militia giving direct orders to his fighters in #ElFasher not to take captives, but to kill everyone.
He’s the one who instructed Abu Lolo and the rest of the militia to carry out the mass killings. #Sudan #KeepEyesOnSudan

[James Copnall @JamesCopnall]

We spoke to aid worker Caroline Bouvard in Tawila. Only 5000 people have arrived there recently which is a concern. Where are the other 250k people from El Fasher? Some are trapped on the road, she says. Those who have arrive report rapes, + confirm killings in El Fasher #Sudan