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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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Reposted by Ashwini Vasanthakumar
Maggie McNeill @maggiemcneill.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The term everyone is dancing around is "secret police", a hallmark of totalitarian regimes.
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Daniel Michael Hernandez @longdrivesouth.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Inmates keep dying inside the Twin Towers in Los Angeles. Why? The family of Daniel Magaña, a 40-year-old who died on Sept 5., have filed a wrongful death claim @latimes.com www.latimes.com/california/s...
latimes.com
10 deaths at L.A.'s Twin Towers jail: One man's family alleges staff failed to provide care
The family of Daniel Magaña has filed a wrongful death claim against L.A. County, alleging staff at the Twin Towers jail failed to provide him with "psychiatric evaluation, monitoring, medication, and...
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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
“Despite all of this and all of these unbelievable accomplishments, the Nobel prize was given out today to a liberal person who works at the United Nations, who nobody has ever heard of” -- a powerful endorsement of the amazing Navi Pillay
theguardian.com
Trump fumes over Nobel peace prize snub and criticizes Norway
President complains about not winning prize in year he started war with Iran and says: ‘We will not forget, Norway’
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Seth Klein @sethdklein.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
‘Knowing our opponents’: how a pro-oil-and-gas group tracks journalists, First Nations and environmentalists. New research by Greenpeace Canada lays out a web of pro-oil-and-gas groups working together to influence public opinion on climate change thenarwhal.ca/fossil-fuel-...
thenarwhal.ca
‘Knowing our opponents’: how a pro-oil-and-gas group tracks journalists, First Nations and environmentalists
New research by Greenpeace Canada lays out a web of pro-oil and gas groups working together to influence public opinion on climate change
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Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Y'all denied her tenure
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Futurism @futurism.com · 10/10/2026
"Unacceptable."
trib.al
Police Furious After an Anthropic AI Model Submitted a Bogus Tip About an Unsolved Murder, Posing as a Person Who Might Have Information About the Case
Philadelphia police say that an Anthropic AI model submitted a false tip about an unsolved murder and didn't inform them for months.
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
"[The researcher] worries about the way overreliance on AI tools in science could jeopardize what makes for a good scientist in the first place: staying close to data, being immersed in the material, and working as part of a team."
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Shared some thoughts on the Trump administration’s boat strikes: “In the absence of an armed conflict,” Finucane said, “the term for premeditated killing is generally murder.” www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
bloomberg.com
And the Nobel Peace Prize Goes to … the Opposite of Trump
The world is watching a split screen: In one panel, humanity sees jurists such as Navi Pillay of South Africa, who just won the Nobel Peace Prize for her decades of struggling for international law, i...
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Jacob Öberg @profjacob.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Update: #US now offically impose new sanctions on the #ICC. The ICC refers in a statement to the sanctions as an "assault on the rule of law and the very foundations of the international legal order". The moral disgrace of the US' actions is unprecedented. www.reuters.com/world/us-imp...
reuters.com
EXCLUSIVE: US imposes sanctions on ICC hours after former judge wins Nobel Peace Prize
The Trump administration has long been hostile to the court and has previously imposed sanctions on its prosecutors and judges.
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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
bbc.com
Nobel Peace Prize live: Navi Pillay wins for 'efforts to promote peace and international law'
Some 287 candidates have been nominated for the prestigious prize, which was won last year by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
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Peter Whitewood @pwhitewood.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
A shadowy network of hedgehogs and owls, operating at the highest levels of the British establishment.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
London Economics’ research estimates that the net economic impact per student was circa £100,000 – in other words, “every 10 international students generate £1m worth of net economic impact for the UK economy over the duration of their studies”. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/fall-in...
timeshighereducation.com
Fall in international student numbers ‘cost UK £2.9 billion’
Latest cost-benefit analysis finds overseas enrolments generate nearly 10 times more money for UK than they take away
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Leonardo Carella @leonardocarella.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
In other words, a 10 percent contraction in one of Britain’s most successful exports. If it were steel or fish or other infinitely less profitable sectors, people would be having a meltdown.
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
"The overall pattern was consistent. Childhood circumstances are associated with death rates many decades later, suggesting that attempts to reduce inequalities in how long people live should begin long before adulthood."
theconversation.com
The circumstances you grow up in are linked to how long you live
Growing up in disadvantaged circumstances is linked to higher death rates decades later, according to a review of 102 studies involving 8.5 million people.
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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
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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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
My first thought!
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Reposted by Ashwini Vasanthakumar
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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Reposted by Ashwini Vasanthakumar
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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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This reminds me of the Pawnee TV station from Parks and Rec.
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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Was the crossing the border ok?
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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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Ashwini Vasanthakumar @ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Imagine the utter shamelessness involved both in applying for this job and making this appointment. Britain can’t be so talentless that this ghoul was the most qualified person.
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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 BooOOooOOmila @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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