An in-depth examination of the buildup to the invasion of Ukraine.

the Guardian

A war foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them

Drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how...

There needs to be a propaganda award at the Oscars...

X (formerly Twitter)

WF (@WhaleFUD) on X

Iran could turn those into a whole TV series

What Jay's been up to... "In my new role as CIO, [ at Bluesky ] I’ve started an Exploration team to find out. The first thing we’ve built is an app called Attie, named after the AT Protocol. Attie is an agentic social app and custom feed builder. It feels more like having a conversation than configuring software. You describe the sort of posts you want to see, and the coding agent builds the feed you described."

The Future of AI Should Serve People, Not Platforms - The Liquid Frontier

"The press is under a coordinated, global assault and I write this as a critical friend of what remains of Britain’s independent media: do not, in the historian Tim Snyder’s words, obey in advance. Stop doing dumb shortsighted self-sabotaging deals, stop thinking tech companies will save you, they never have and never will and answer the sodding questions when journalists put them to you."

The broligarchy's war on journalism

The capture of US media by Trump allies is accelerating and the UK is the next in line. Plus: the mystery money behind my old newspaper.

Important

The Conversation

Is dark chocolate healthier than milk chocolate? 2 dietitians explain

Dark chocolate has a reputation for being healthier, but is that true? Here’s how to choose between dark and milk chocolate this Easter.

Take it away Bette...

"This isn’t just about bad civics education or Fox News melting brains like microwaved Velveeta. It’s about early childhood trauma. Specifically: Authoritarian child abuse—and the way it wires people’s brains, early and permanently, to seek out charismatic narcissistic abusers like heat-seeking missiles launched from the tiny neglected hearts of their own bruised inner children."

Are Americans Just Stupid...

Or is it something else?

"In Sacramento, electricity costs under 17 cents per kWh. Down in San Diego, it costs over 45 cents. Same state. Same grid. Same sunshine. The difference is ownership structure. "

Substack

Howard Yu (@howardyu)

In Sacramento, electricity costs under 17 cents per kWh. Down in San Diego, it costs over 45 cents. Same state. Same grid. Same sunshine. The d...

Suddenly, it all makes sense...

The Conversation

Policy by trial and error: how Silicon Valley culture has infiltrated governments

Policies that look chaotic actually reflect a deeper shift in how governments exercise power. The consequences can be dire.

"When she wasn’t looking over my shoulder, I was searching for different things."

Gray Matter

My first PubMed search and the limitations of neuroscientific explanations

In the case of something as wonderfully complex as who we love, it’s unlikely we’ll find it staring back at us on an MRI, a genome sequence, or...

The world is slowly rebalancing...

Bluesky Social

Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas.bsky.social)

The EU and Ghana have a strong, long-standing partnership. By signing a new Security and Defence Partnership we are taking it further. This is the...

Also...

Bluesky Social

The Conversation AUNZ (@aunz.theconversation.com)

Australia has long had an awkward relationship with the European Union. But after years of often fraught negotiations, the two have finally come to...

"When he pointed out that 80 million households now owned DVD players and nobody wanted VHS tapes anymore, headquarters had a phrase ready: 'The customer is format agnostic.' "

Substack

Howard Yu (@howardyu)

The most profitable Blockbuster franchisee in America spent years sending detailed memos to the CEO showing the stores were failing. When he prese...

How to make toys and houses and diapers and such...

That time when NZ said no to a US destroyer... https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19850206.2.44

'Western' air defenses in the Middle East seem pretty crap.

7NEWS

Australians caught up in the war as Iranian drones strike base

The Middle Eastern base currently serves as the headquarters of the Australian Defence Force’s Joint Task Force 633 and supports Australian opera...

This is old now, from last Christmas Eve, but well worth a read.

The One Chart That Explains Everything

And the seven books that make sense of America's AI Anxiety and China's AI Optimism

Population collapse averted!

The Onion

Trump Issues Executive Order Reversing All Vasectomies

WASHINGTON—Telling reporters that the move would do much to combat low U.S. fertility rates, President Donald Trump issued an executive order Fri...