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Ashwini Vasanthakumar

@ashwinivasantha.bsky.social
2.2K followers 1.3K following 1K posts

Legal and political theory | migration, authority, obligation, oppression and the ethics of resistance | writing a book on why immigrants should not 'integrate' | reposts are not endorsements www.ashwinivasanthakumar.com

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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 8h
Oh dear.
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Garth Marenghi's Catbus @catbus.phd · 03/09/2024
the three genders
three squeeze bottles of sauce labeled 
special, Halloween & Mild
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Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I accidentally spent £17,700 on 400 subscriptions to the LRB for Home Office staff and now the Life in the UK test is asking applicants to rank Derek Jarman films from most to least emotionally resonant?
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is a dreadful argument from Burnham. Empirically false - almost 6m people were granted settled status; about 4m are currently resident. More importantly panders to racism/xenophobia, and directly contradicts argument made in his speech about migrant contributions.
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Josie Glausiusz @josiegz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“There’s a feeling today that Britain only found out about the Holocaust at the end of the war. But in 1942 [...] you couldn’t really escape this information in Britain. It was in every newspaper. It was on the BBC," said historian Martin Winstone www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Britain knew about the Holocaust as it happened. A new exhibition reckons with that truth
Research draws upon reporting and witness testimony, while a permanent memorial is planned for London
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Jonathan Floyd @jonathanfloyd.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Do have you a political theory/philosophy book manuscript? Would you like a one-day workshop dedicated to it in Spring 2027? If so, Bristol is here for you, and as promised a while ago, here's the very short form you need to fill in between now and roughly 4 weeks time: forms.gle/uCvi7sMMT7kW...
forms.gle
The Bristol Political Philosophy Manuscript Workshop 2027
The Bristol Political Philosophy group will be hosting its first manuscript workshop in 2027. This will give scholars who are currently preparing a book manuscript a chance to engage in a day-long wor...
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Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Is he painting folks he held at Guantanamo Bay?
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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Perhaps he can be banished to Piddington.
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Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
‘Danny Tommo’, leader of the balaclava-clad blackshirt rallies, says he will travel to Piddington “in the coming days” following the Parish Council’s stunt referendum: “I want to hear about safety concerns for their women and children.” Tommo was jailed for two years in 2016 for a knifepoint kidnap.
Daniel “Danny Tommo” Thomas. Indigo Nolan at Flickr.com, CC-BY-SA.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 16/09/2026
I'm just going to keep yelling this louder and louder until it clicks: weird overpaid AI nerds hand-wringing about human extinction are trying to distract you from the extremely deadly and serious harms they are causing yesterday, today and tomorrow www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Headline: "US Data Centers Set to Burn More Natural Gas Than Most Nations" above a photo of natural gas compressor towers, power lines and a crane at an industrial site, illustrating rising gas use tied to data centers.News excerpt reporting that U.S. data centers’ natural gas use is expected to grow by 15 billion cubic feet per day by 2035—amounting to more gas than every country except China, Russia, Iran and the U.S., citing the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
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Canadian Dimension @canadiandimension.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Mark Carney is selling his “productivity mega deduction” as a way to boost investment. But decades of corporate tax cuts have instead fuelled record profits, rising dividends, and historic wealth inequality, write Jared A. Walker and @silasxuereb.bsky.social of @c4tf.bsky.social.
canadiandimension.com
Trickle down hasn’t worked for the last 40 years. Why does Carney want to try it again?
Instead of ensuring our sovereignty, the Carney government is auctioning off more and more control over Canada’s economy to whichever foreign oligarch has the deepest pockets. If Canada wants to incre...
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 15/09/2026
All supporting acts withdraw from Ed Sheeran’s tour in solidarity with Macklemore
theguardian.com
All supporting acts withdraw from Ed Sheeran’s tour in solidarity with Macklemore
Three openers and live band for Sheeran’s tour depart after removal of Macklemore over ‘free Palestine’ comments All four supporting acts for upcoming dates of Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour have withdrawn in solidarity with fellow opening act Macklemore, as backlash grows to his removal from the tour over onstage comments in support of Palestine. Finneas, the singer who was scheduled to open for Sheeran on six South American dates in November, withdrew from the tour on Tuesday afternoon, hours after Sheeran posted his own lengthy statement to Instagram explaining pressure from venue owners to remove Macklemore for pro-Palestine comments made during two shows at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. Continue reading...
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The cool thing about complicity is that it goes away if you just tell people you don’t have it

Ed Sheeran breaks silence on Macklemore's tour exit: I am not complicit'
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canuk2006.bsky.social @canuk2006.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
"Ontario’s homelessness problem is bad and getting worse. A new report says Ontario should expect its homeless population to grow by nearly 15,000 — and that’s probably optimistic" www.tvo.org/article/anal...
tvo.org
ANALYSIS: Ontario’s homelessness problem is bad and getting worse | TVO Today
A new report says Ontario should expect its homeless population to grow by nearly 15,000 — and that’s probably optimistic.
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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
"The North American leg of Sheeran’s tour will conclude in November at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, which earlier this year hosted two shows by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has a history of antisemitic statements."
theguardian.com
Macklemore dropped from Ed Sheeran’s US tour after ‘free Palestine’ speech
The American rapper will no longer support Sheeran’s US leg of Loop tour after comments at MetLife Stadium show
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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
When future President John Adams walked into court to defend the British soldiers who committed the Boston Massacre, he knew he was laying down a marker for future generations about what the rule of law is. Julio Frenk, chancellor of my university, unfortunately missed that lesson and a few more.
latimes.com
UCLA chancellor rebukes law school event with 9/11 'mastermind' attorney; organizers push back
After a UCLA law school symposium on 9/11 that featured an attorney who represented alleged 9/11 'mastermind' Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk issued a rare message distancing the u...
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 14/09/2026
I worked at Google DeepMind. You should listen to the warnings about AI | Alex Turner
theguardian.com
I worked at Google DeepMind. You should listen to the warnings about AI | Alex Turner
We must stop companies from allowing AI to self-improve into an uncontrollable level of intelligence
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 14/09/2026
‘Donald Trump may have described it as “not even a country” but objectively Somalia has been one of the US military’s higher priorities since his return to the White House.’ Why is Trump bombing Somalia? New on the blog from @tomstevenson.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/se...
lrb.co.uk
Tom Stevenson | Why is Trump bombing Somalia?
Over the past twenty months, the US has launched airstrikes in Somalia using MQ-9 Reaper drones and sometimes manned...
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Ntina Tzouvala @ntinatzouvala.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
In recent months, the success of AI in solving major mathematical problems has made headlines. But solving problems is only a tool and proxy for achieving the primary goal of conceptual understanding and insight. Forgetting this may turn the tool against the primary goal. mathandai.org
mathandai.org
Declaration — Math and AI
Read the declaration and add your name.
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Yale AAUP @aaupyale.org · 11/09/2026
Can universities be neutral? Yale Law School professor and AAUP member Robert Post reviews Brian Soucek’s (@brsoucek.bsky.social) The Opinionated University in Academe Magazine (@academemagazine.bsky.social), exploring institutional neutrality and academic freedom. Read: bit.ly/AM_Controversy
Robert Post’s Academe Magazine review, “Clarifying How Universities Should Deal with Controversy,” on a gray gradient background. Beneath the headline, a note identifies the review as a preview of the fall 2026 issue. Brian Soucek’s book, The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education, appears with bright yellow lettering over a black-and-white photograph. Alongside the cover, the opening paragraph praises the book’s treatment of diversity statements, institutional neutrality, and academic freedom. The AAUP Yale logo is centered below the article.
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Jakub Krupa @jakubkrupa.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Want to follow the election night in Sweden? We’ve got all you need @theguardian.com. Exit polls, projections, comments and analysis. Europe Live blog is, well, live: www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
theguardian.com
Sweden general election: close race as far right eyes role in government – Europe live
Country heads to the polls as latest polling shows 0.3-point gap between left and right wing blocs
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Erik Angner @erikangner.com · 13/09/2026
Please be kind to your Swedish friends tomorrow 🇸🇪 We’ll all be suffering a hangover of historic proportions 🗳️
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Since it can be hard to believe that political and corporate elites would actively give up on our shared future on this singular planet, we made a short film so folks can hear from the end timers and judge for themselves. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor: the future according to end times fascism
In a new video, Klein and Taylor outline a ominous evolution taking shape on the far right – and how to stay loyal to this planet and each other
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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
"The Grenfell inquiry ... found she slowed down the installation of self-closing mechanisms on fire doors in the tower for “financial and practical reasons”, despite warnings from the London fire brigade that their absence compromised fire escape routes."
theguardian.com
Director who oversaw Grenfell cost-cutting given senior council housing role
Fire survivors and bereaved urge Barnet Group to ‘reconsider’ appointment of Laura Johnson, who pushed for cheaper contractor
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Richie Assaly @rdassaly.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Excellent, in-depth profile on @dianachanmcnally.bsky.social by @emmapaling.bsky.social. In the @thelocal.to
thelocal.to
Toronto’s Most Well-Known Defender of Homeless Encampments Runs for Council | The Local
As a teenager, Diana Chan McNally was briefly homeless. She’s since worked in drop-in centres and become a prominent advocate for homeless people. In the race for Parkdale-High Park, she’s going to ne...
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Dr. Catherine Strickson @brigitteempire.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Eye-wateringly stupid defence from Rowling’s team here - ‘She does not support legal actions aimed at harming transgender people.’ - Really? So that £70,000 towards the bathroom ban was by accident? The JKR Women’s Fund was made by an impersonator? At least have the spine to admit you want us dead
ew.com
J.K. Rowling’s rep responds to Lilly Wachowski’s accusation of ‘funding trans genocide’ (exclusive)
J.K. Rowling’s representative responded to Lilly Wachowski accusing the author of ‘funding trans genocide’: ‘She does not support legal actions aimed at harming transgender people.’
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The entire right wing has been furious that the mayor of New York City had the nerve to be Muslim on 9/11, while their president is out here bragging about what a terrific relationship he has with the Saudi royal family.
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Ed Burmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The first plane hitting the first tower happened just short of 2pm UK time.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 12/09/2026
mackenzie scott really seems like the only billionaire to figure out that you can be a literal hero to millions with a relative pittance
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 12/09/2026
Toby Ord, Cofounder of the Effective Altruism movement, longtermist who believes humanity's goal is to create vast amounts of digital beings to colonize the cosmos, is the one advising your lawmakers on "AI".
Toby Ord tweet: 72 lawmakers in the UK have sent a letter to the Prime Minister, calling for an immediate ban on the development of superintelligence and the championing of an international treaty to do the same worldwide.

Quote tweeting 

Alex Sobel MP for Leeds Central and Headingley
@alexsobel's tweet: 
With 71 colleagues I am calling on the Govt to work with us on my bill to prohibit the development of superintelligent AI and champion an international agreement

We can then lead on preventing the extinction risk posed by superintelligence
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Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The response to 9/11 intensified an “imperial arrogance,” as Edward Said called it, “unschooled in worldliness, unfettered either by competence or experience, undeterred by history or human complexity, unrepentant in its violence and the cruelty of its technology.” Adom Getachew on its aftermath:
bostonreview.net
Holding Ourselves Responsible
The failures of the UN’s Responsibility to Protect framework.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 09/09/2026
Clearing unexploded bombs from Gaza will take decades—once the work is allowed to begin. Israel isn’t allowing mine clearance groups to remove the explosives that litter the strip.
motherjones.com
The impossible struggle to demine Gaza
Israel isn't allowing mine clearance groups to remove the explosives that litter the strip.
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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"He attended a private school in Hampshire and his father Russell was a university-educated skiing enthusiast who retired to Brittany." Someone, please please interview the father.
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Xero now with 100% more 🎃 @artificer-ind.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Still patiently waiting to be "left behind" by AI rather than it chasing me across every damn space like a slasher in a low budget flick.
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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"Improving outcomes for white working-class people will be a focus of its work, even though government sources insisted it would not be a dedicated white working-class unit." A great comfort to brown and black working folk.
theguardian.com
Ministers to put white working-class people in UK at heart of new equalities unit
Bridget Phillipson to announce creation of unit which will make class a key part of its equalities agenda
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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Surprising this story isn't getting more coverage...
portsmouth.co.uk
Protestors confuse Pakistan cricket team for migrants after gathering at hotel
Misinformation caused groups of people to gather at The Marriott Hotel
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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
My Grade 9 Geography class (also my first year of schooling in Canada) was all about the cod stock.
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Charlie Angus @charlieangus104.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This is my Grandfather Joe MacNeil with his annual silicosis photograph. Joe was a beautiful man who died from deliberate poisoning. He was forced to breathe aluminum dust every day at work. The aluminum coated men's lungs and hid evidence of lesions in x-rays. Labour Day matters. Now more than ever
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
my 2 cents on material conditions and right wing politics for @hammerandhope.bsky.social "The portrayal of economic anxiety as a standalone rather than complementary explanation to the machinations of plutocratic bigots also flies in the face of what we know..." hammerandhope.org/article/econ...
hammerandhope.org
The False Narrative of Economic Anxiety
People are insecure, but that is not the only reason they voted for Donald Trump in 2024.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I know this is a common belief, but it’s not true. If people went anti-vaxx/MAHA because they were excluded from the medical establishment, we would see sky-high rates among poor people, minorities and the uninsured. We don’t.
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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 07/09/2026
Possibly the most American news of all time
local12.com
Prison inmates donate more than $4,000 to pay children's school lunch debt
Residents at the prison contributed $3,810 of their own money, while Kansas Department of Corrections employees added another $457.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 07/03/2026
Staff at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility have placed bets on which detainee will be the next to die by suicide, according to new reporting from the Associated Press based on 911 calls and detainee accounts.
motherjones.com
At Largest ICE Detention Camp, Staff Bet on Detainee Suicides, AP Reports
Camp East Montana has received several 911 calls in the span of five months about immigrants trying to harm themselves.
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 05/09/2026
Guyana is at least the sixth country to start taking third-country nationals since mid-July. (along with Burundi, Liberia, Belize, Dominica, St Lucia). Jamaica and the Bahamas may also be taking third-country nationals, but no one has been able to confirm it yet. 34 countries total now by my count.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
“there is no honour for the humanities in regaining their standing through the attention of AI companies, if they engage only on the technology industry’s terms. In that case, they will have become important in exactly the wrong way.” www.ft.com/content/bdb3...
ft.com
Why this philosopher turned down Anthropic
The AI industry is courting the humanities — but it is asking the wrong questions
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 01/09/2026
I would like ask JD Vance about Pierre Damas Bel.
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 01/09/2026
‘While councils across Britain face similar housing emergencies, there’s something extreme about what’s happening in Southwark.’ @jamesmeek.bsky.social on social housing in Southwark, published online early from the next issue: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
James Meek · ‘What kind of people do they think we are?’: Where will we build?
Now that Southwark has become desirable, the patches of neglect are placeholders for the chains and high-end outlets the...
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 31/08/2026
NEW FROM ME: On a hellish third-country removal flight last month, passengers say ICE-contracted guards got drunk, teased and beat them, tied them up, refused to let them use the lavatory. One says he witnessed an ICE agent admit to illegal chain refoulement. prospect.org/2026/08/31/w...
prospect.org
‘What America Did to Me Is Wrong’: Inside One of the Largest Third-Country Removal Flights So Far - The American Prospect
On July 31, an estimated 71 detainees were expelled to various countries on a hellish flight to Africa. Many were then illegally returned to their home countries.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I think what I find really depressing about AI in higher education is how so many people didn't even wait for the evidence/research before we decided on telling students "how to use AI responsibly" which often includes things like checking grammar, and obviously, we shouldn't have been

Jill Walker Rettberg

  • 3rd+

Professor @ Center for Digital Narrative, UiB

1d • 


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Did you know that even prompting an LLM to edit your grammar might alter the semantic meaning of your text and remove your human voice? If you're in Bergen on Friday September 4 you can hear Isadora White and Marwa Abdulhai present their recent paper on this. They took human-written short essays, asked LLMs to revise them and found significant changes well beyond just copyediting. This is a large-scale computational study, but the image shared here shows two examples of how this happens.

We'll also have talks by John Gallagher, whose newsletter on AI and writing I read religiously, and by Rashid Mustafin, a PhD student at NHH, and Pedro Jacobetty. And before these public talks the AI STORIES team gets to spend two days in a workshop with these and other brilliant people - I'm so excited! 

Here is the full program: https://lnkd.in/eeGUywhj
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 24/11/2024
Open this photo up and look for the small, white dot just left of centre. It looks like Venus, shining brightly in the twilight sky. But it's us. It's Earth. From Mars.
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