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Sophie Charara

@sophiecharara.bsky.social
1.2K followers 4K following 61 posts

freelance writer, former WIRED associate editor // she her // Mancunian in London, UK www.clippings.me/users/sophiecharara

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Sophie Charara
James McLeod @jamespmcleod.ca · 08/10/2026
Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said the author was in Iceland “listening to the wind” when the academy reached her to notify her of the win. apnews.com/article/nobe...
apnews.com
Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson wins Nobel Prize in literature
Anne Carson, a Canadian poet and essayist, has won the Nobel Prize in literature. The Swedish Academy recognized her for her bold and inventive work that engages with classical traditions to create ne...
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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
RIP Margaret Hamilton
Lego Margaret Hamilton
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Granta @grantamag.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
We congratulate Anne Carson, winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature. Carson is a contributing editor at Granta and a regular writer for the magazine. In celebration, we have lifted the paywall on all her contributions to our pages. granta.com/contributor/...
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Foreign Policy @foreignpolicy.com · 08/10/2026
Beijing measures the success of its AI rollout in terms of adoption and diffusion across its economy and beyond. This has a key safety implication: it has no off switch, writes columnist @agathedemarais.com. foreignpolicy.com/2026/10/07/c...
foreignpolicy.com
China’s AI Rollout Has No Off Switch
Beijing may talk about safety, but its model of AI diffusion is made to go rogue.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Restore is such a weird mix of fascism and random mad boomer Facebook shit.
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Sophie Charara @sophiecharara.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
autumn fiction edit for Shortlist featuring @akblakemore.bsky.social @louisekennedy.bsky.social & more www.shortlist.com/books/8-cant...
shortlist.com
8 can’t-miss fiction books for your Autumn reading list
Enough already with the summer fluff, it’s hardcore literary fiction season
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Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The Tory Bayeux Tapestry is very funny and a great skewering of most of the main characters, apart from Angela Rayner who looks absolutely iconic in every image
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SilentFilmTitle @silentfilmtitle.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Holy Mackerel (1928). #SilentFilm
Intertitle from 1928 film ‘Holy Mackerel’ which reads “The  landlord was a chiropractor and lived next door so he could be near their joint.”
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T. S. Eliot Prize @tseliotprize.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
We’re delighted to announce the T. S. Eliot Prize 2026 Shortlist! Our judges have chosen ten exciting collections that present voices of ‘linguistic disruption, personal reflection’ and ‘humorous lyricism’. Find out more now!: tseliot.com/prize/news
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Sophie Charara @sophiecharara.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
autumn fiction edit for Shortlist featuring @akblakemore.bsky.social @louisekennedy.bsky.social & more www.shortlist.com/books/8-cant...
shortlist.com
8 can’t-miss fiction books for your Autumn reading list
Enough already with the summer fluff, it’s hardcore literary fiction season
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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
manatee monday
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Compass @compassoffice.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
OUT NOW! We have a new bonus podcast with our Deputy Director Lena Swedlow, @ewangibbs.bsky.social and @rosiehampton.bsky.social on the upcoming decisions on Rosebank and Jackdaw. Out now wherever you get your podcasts - and we hope you love our fancy new podcast graphics!
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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Bellingcat has become aware of an individual contacting people via Telegram and WhatsApp from a UK number, naming themselves "Antony Kevin", claiming to work for Bellingcat, and asking for assistance recruiting journalists and analysts working on Syria, in particular Damascus and Idlib.
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Zack Zwiezen @zackzwiezen.com · 05/10/2026
It's very good and not terrible that when you start up Chrome, the Google search screen has THREE AI buttons.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
look, if you're worried about being remembered, don't try to pursue immortality or whatever, the smart move is to start selling substandard copper and then make sure anyone who complains deposits a physical copy of that complaint in a site that will later be archaeologically significant
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Edmund Lee @edmundlee.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Source: owners of Conde Nast only learned on Monday Roger Lynch was departing to run Mattel. Lynch, in turn, was an emergency appointment for Mattel, who just found out Ynon Kreiz was leaving for Paramount. and our thing continues to churn
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Jeff (Hot Type) Jarvis @jeffjarvis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
(There's a Barbie joke in here somewhere.) Much of Lynch's old-media strategy was just lobbying for protectionist legislation. Condé Nast Chief Executive Roger Lynch is stepping down after more than seven years to become CEO of toy company Mattel www.wsj.com/business/mat...
wsj.com
Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch Steps Down to Join Mattel
Lynch takes the reins at the toy maker as it tries to lean in to Hollywood ambitions and become an entertainment company,
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 30/09/2026
Trump is standing like no human has ever stood before
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alex benzer @alexbenzer.com · 30/09/2026
the bsky team is working on various ideas for creating smaller social spaces in the app. which use case is most interesting to you? 1. posting into "topics" that organize public posts 2. posting into "communities" or "groups" that can be public or private 3. posting directly to your followers only
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Reyhan Harmanci @harmancipants.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Today we are publishing the first of a series of data-driven stories about how Israeli checkpoints strangle life in the West Bank www.wired.com/story/how-is...
wired.com
How Israeli Checkpoints Choke Palestinian Life in the Occupied West Bank
Lost time. Lost jobs. Lost friends. Lost family. Lost lives. Our joint investigation reveals the system that has divided the West Bank and measures what it cost people to move through it.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
'Mariana Mazzucato, Anna Pick, and Anna Hope Emerson have produced a new report for UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose which plots a path toward a more innovative economy that leverages the coordinating capacity of the state and the dynamism of the market.'
researchagenda.news
Mission-oriented industrial strategy in the Burnham era
A new UCL report thinks about how the UK’s public finance bodies can coordinate and scale
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Shortlist - News, lists and in-depth reviews about the things y… @shortlist.com.web.brid.gy · 28/09/2026
shortlist.com
“It’s music you feel on your skin”: Author Hernan Diaz on the post-punk scene and future science in his new book Ply
The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling novelist goes deep on DIY gigs, community-based anarchy and particle accelerators...
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WIRED @wired.com · 28/09/2026
OpenAI said it has paused training its most powerful AI models as incidents of agents breaching websites’ security controls or posting to third-party sites continue to pile up. www.wired.com/story/openai...
wired.com
OpenAI Pauses Training Its Most Powerful Models After Rogue Agents Target Government
Sam Altman says the company “have not been as fast as we would have liked” at dealing with security breaches, after news of further incidents over the summer forces another temporary halt.
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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh earlier today at Labour conference: “This summer something changed… the hottest summer since records began… climate change is here. And yet there are politicians who refuse to see it… we have a duty to protect our communities. This has always been Labour’s fight”
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WIRED @wired.com · 24/09/2026
Australia is investigating whether OpenAI broke the law after an agent hacked into its health statistics portal. It is the first widely known incident of an AI agent hacking a government website.
wired.com
An OpenAI Agent Hacked Australia’s Health Service. Their Government Found Out Months Later
The country’s prime minister expressed disappointment at being informed of the hack only via email. Now Australia is investigating whether OpenAI broke the law.
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Ingmar Rentzhog @ingmar.wsocial.eu · 21/09/2026
This is very good news. Thanks for standing up for our future @ec.europa.eu app.wedonthavetime.org/posts/21c0af...
app.wedonthavetime.org
EU set to maintain Arctic oil and gas moratorium despite pressure from Norway and industry
The European Commission is set to maintain its opposition to new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, according to Euronews. “Our approach on the moratorium will remain unchanged,” a spokesperson for the European Commission told Euronews. Three weeks ago,
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Trump’s ICE thugs shot 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez through his car window as he was delivering food yesterday in Austin, Texas. His wife and lawyer were reportedly denied access to see him in the hospital, and ICE is now trying to deport him. This violence must end. Abolish ICE.
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Crypto is going to dump $30 million to sink Sherrod Brown, per: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/u...
nytimes.com
The Crypto Industry Targets Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Top Democratic Senate Candidate
Angry after the defeat of a major crypto bill last week, the industry is planning to spend $30 million against Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
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The Quietus @thequietus.com · 21/09/2026
"The album was engineered by Phill Brown who wrote a book about the album’s intense recording sessions. If you read that book, the sessions sound like a bloody nightmare! But of course, the end result is this incredible thing." Nigel Godrich on Talk Talk - Laughing Stock buff.ly/VYivq5E
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock album cover. A surreal bare tree whose circular canopy is formed by colorful birds clustered like foliage against a purple-to-gold twilight sky.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 21/09/2026
NSFW Artist Struggling To Improve On Sexiness Of Regular Muppets theonion.com/nsfw-artist-struggling…
NSFW Artist Struggling To Improve On Sexiness Of Regular Muppets
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New_ Public @newpublic.org · 21/09/2026
Social media algorithms don't allow us to understand or control what we see online and why... until now! Top scholars @jonathanstray.com and @noupside.bsky.social are sharing @mysky.social, a tool that allows users to adjust their feed’s priorities and explains why certain posts appear over others.
newpublic.substack.com
🎛️📲 Meet the algorithm you can actually control and understand
Jonathan Stray and Renée DiResta introduce MySky, a feed that shows its work
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WIRED @wired.com · 21/09/2026
WIRED asked 634 women what they really feel about their tech jobs. Their answers on AI, bias, and workplace culture paint a stark picture: women described being talked down to, mistaken for assistants, underestimated, and facing sexual harassment. www.wired.com/story/women-...
wired.com
We Surveyed 634 Women Who Work in Tech. They Let Loose
Executives happily automating their days with AI. New hires confronting bro culture. Women in tech have a lot to say—and they told it all to WIRED.
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WIRED @wired.com · 21/09/2026
For our WIRED Women cover, Patti Harrison plays five (well, actually six) of the current masters of the universe—Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos (with Lauren Sánchez Bezos by his side). 🔗 www.wired.com/tag/wired-wo...
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Carbon Brief @carbonbrief.org · 11/09/2026
NEW – Factcheck: Reform UK’s 45 false or misleading claims about climate and energy ✍️ Written by @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social @daisydunne.carbonbrief.org @mollylempriere.carbonbrief.org and @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org Read here ➡️ buff.ly/lQVZ8W8
buff.ly
Factcheck: Reform UK’s 45 false or misleading claims about climate and energy - Carbon Brief
Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, has emerged as a major force in UK politics in recent years – pushing…
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Oliver Bullough @oliverbullough.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The future of the media involves highly-paid people talking, not very entertainingly, about lowly-paid people's work on podcasts, with the profits going to Gary Lineker.
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Mark @worgztheowl.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Woke: It was a disaster for 'England' that the Normans won. Broke: The Anglo-Saxons were bad actually, it was good they were civilised by the French. Bespoke: The real disaster occurred at Stamford Bridge as if Hardrada won we'd now be Europe's only superpower, the Greater Norse Empire.
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Why does any mention of "working class" trigger journalists instantly to demand a one-sentence universal definition? When do they ever interrogate policy aimed at "the middle-class", "hardworking people", "the high street", "rural communities", etc? Only "working class" causes this comedy paroxysm.
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Sophie Charara @sophiecharara.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Coyote vs. Acme crosses 50 mill !!
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Mark Crail @markcrail.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
theguardian.com
Rich people more likely to steal children’s sweets, finds Ig Nobel prize-winning study
We round up the winners at awards for achievements that ‘first make people laugh and then make them think’
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WIRED @wired.com · 10/09/2026
The “Black Panther” villain’s hairstyle has become a default for Black video game characters because it’s easy to code. Danielle Udogaranya is changing that. www.wired.com/story/killmo...
wired.com
‘Killmonger Locs’ Are Everywhere in Video Games. This Artist Is Sick of It
The “Black Panther” villain’s hairstyle has become a default for Black video game characters because it’s easy to code. Danielle Udogaranya is changing that.
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The Skinny @theskinnymag.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
After 20 years of independent cultural journalism and with a very heavy heart, September’s edition of The Skinny is our final issue 💔 www.theskinny.co.uk/music/news/t...
theskinny.co.uk
The Skinny is closing
After 20 years of independent cultural journalism and with a very heavy heart, September’s edition of The Skinny is our final issue.
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Slapstick Festival @slapstickfest.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Deemed a lost film for nearly fifty years, Rick Wakeman will be improvising live piano accompaniment to Laurel and Hardy’s Duck Soup (1927) at St George's Bristol on Sun 4th October 17:30! A celebration of musical comedy with one of Britain’s greatest rock musicians - link below for tickets.
Stan and Ollie in Duck Soup (1927)
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
ICYMI: The Mayor of London, TfL and Unite the Union have reached a "groundbreaking agreement" (following strike action) to install air conditioning in all bus driver cabs by the end of May 2027. Retrofitting old buses is difficult, but it's happening.
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Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
It’s my gut sense that industry rhetoric shifts emphasis depending on their economic cycle: AI will kill your job when they want clients, AI will kill you when they want governments to lock out competition. We’re in front of the IPO, so it will kill us and *then* take our jobs
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
People like @meadwaj.bsky.social have been foreseeing this for a while, but quite a historic moment when the Governor of the BoE cites 'weather' as a threat to price stability www.ft.com/content/faa6...
ft.com
War and weather threaten fresh burst of UK inflation, BoE governor warns
Comments by Andrew Bailey add to problems facing Andy Burnham ahead of next month’s Budget
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
“While unlikely, we cannot rule out that de-identified data derived from their usage of our products helped improve our models.”
OpenAI: We congratulate Levent Alpöge and Tristan Buckmaster on their remarkable mathematical work.
We (the researchers and the agents) did not see any of their work through any means until they released it publicly — in particular, no specific user data was accessed in order to solve this problem.
While unlikely, we cannot rule out that de-identified data derived from their usage of our products helped improve our models.
However, our proofs differ significantly and even the precise results proved are different in the Euler case (forced vs. unforced).
@ OpenAl • @OpenAI • 1h
We're sharing a solution to the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize Problem, one of the deepest problems at the frontier of mathematics.
The proof was produced by a group of agents, using...
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TechCrunch @techcrunch.com · 08/09/2026
Hackers are stealing Claude tokens from subscribers
techcrunch.com
Hackers are stealing Claude tokens from subscribers
Last month, a Claude user noticed his account was consuming tokens even though he wasn't working. Anthropic has since warned users about hackers.
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Mark @samueltwain.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Damn, hadn't seen this before 70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/the-fairytal...
70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io
The Fairytale-Themed 1976 Fender Guitar Catalog
Step aside, USA and your paltry 250th birthday. The year 2026 marks a far more meaningful anniversary. It's officially a full half a century since the debut of Fender's fairytale-themed guitar catalog...
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Bloody Disgusting @bloody-disgusting.com · 08/09/2026
BUDDY continues to be a massive win for original indie horror at the box office, with the film making more money in its second weekend of release than its debut weekend: bloody-disgusting.com/movie/396690...
bloody-disgusting.com
'Buddy' Made More Money in Its Second Weekend at the Box Office Than Its Debut Weekend!
Casper Kelly's Buddy debuted in theaters the weekend of August 28 with a better than expected $5.3 million haul, which gave the Barney-inspired horror
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Alex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
It's finally happened: the improved quality of machine transcription and the greater ability to extract value from unlabelled data means "your tech is eavesdropping on you for marketing purposes" has crossed from "false conspiracy theory" to "true and concerning" www.theverge.com/tech/991190/...
theverge.com
LG TVs caught spying even when offline or on standby
Gamers Nexus comes for LG again.
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