Andy Burnham has ruled out a coalition deal with the Greens over the party’s recently-passed conference motion on Zionism, calling it “antisemitic”.

Burnham said: “It is wrong. It is antisemitic. This side of the House will have nothing to do with it”, adding that “we cannot support a partnership with a party that holds the position that has recently been adopted”.

How, pray tell, is it antisemitic?

The more I hear people say that it is, the more I am convinced that the motion is actually correct. Calling things antisemitic that are not antisemitic is the most common move of the Israel shill to poison the well.

If his criticism were simply that it's too broad, solutionizing for another country or not great policy that would be one thing. I could take that as legitimate criticism. Calling it anti-semitic just discredits his opinion.

As far as I can tell, it sounds like the Mayor's office chickened out and will be hiring Palantir after all.

I'm posting this here to remind the tankies in the audience to not support the Iranian regime. Just because America bad does not mean Iran good. Far from it.

A source close to Amini’s family told the US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) that Amini was sentenced to death on charges of “sab ol-nabi” (insulting the prophet).

Amini was arrested by security forces during January’s nationwide protests, which were suppressed with a deadly crackdown. Thousands were reported killed, while the HRAI news agency, Hrana, said more than 50,000 people were arrested.

Rights groups warn that the Iranian authorities are increasingly using capital punishment to instil fear and suppress dissent. According to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), more than 600 executions have already been carried out this year.

Under article 262 of Iran’s Islamic penal code, insulting the prophet Muhammad or revered Shia figures is punishable by death. However, article 263 provides exemptions for statements made while intoxicated or without deliberate intent, although offenders may still face up to 74 lashes in certain circumstances.

According to the Iranian newspaper Khorasan, which confirmed the judicial proceedings, Amini told the court she had posted the remarks while hallucinating after taking psychedelic mushrooms with friends and her defence argued it was a “slip of the tongue”.

The presiding judge rejected her defence, reportedly asking: “Why, in that same hallucinatory state, did you not insult other individuals or opponents of the regime, such as America and Israel?”

Amini’s death sentence is not final and remains subject to appeal before Iran’s supreme court.

A reminder that just because something is the law, does not make it morally good. Many laws are written and enforced to the detriment of the average person.

I've had a Chromecast for almost a decade, and it had mostly been great. They cost £30 at the time, and let you cast from most media apps, even if they didn't really have their own UI. You could take it to a friends house / hotel, power it off of the USB port on the back of most TVs and you'd be off to the races.

Given that they are now discontinued and my old one doesn't support 4K and casting from some newer apps (maybe a lack of AV1 / h265 support?), I'm looking for a replacement.

I'm looking for a privacy-respecting device in a vaguely stick-like format that will support casting from Android. It having support for apps is a nice to have for me.

Before you say "well if you use YouTube / Plex it's not private because they collect data about what you watch", sure, that may be true, but I'd rather not have the stick itself also do ACR on everything I cast as well.

Spotted in Madrid, Spain

Most have probably never read the Bible either.

"Non-compete clauses stop workers from joining a rival organisation, or indeed, setting up one of their own after they have left their role, and I think that's a drag on innovation and prevents the best really being energised and bringing that dynamism to the economy.

British Transport Police (BTP) have spent more than £320k and almost 100 hours of officers’ time on a six-month trial of live facial recognition (LFR) technology in London’s railway stations – yielding just one incorrect face match and no arrests.

The surveillance tech scans passersby and alerts authorities if it recognises someone on a watchlist. It is supposed to help catch people accused of crimes or who breach court orders.

But a freedom of information request by Liberty Investigates, shared with the Guardian in September, revealed that after scanning more than half a million faces between February and July, the tech only sent one suspect alert, and that turned out to be a false positive.

Despite this failure, Transport for London (TfL) has given permission for the technology to be expanded across London Underground stations too.

Well, at least there aren't dozens of false positives and people getting arrested or shot, like with Flock in America.

The study found that AI’s suggested diagnoses matched the eventual confirmed diagnosis in more than half of cases

So it got it wrong half the time?

However, one conversation was later rated “somewhat harmful” by a doctors after the chatbot listed a possible cancer diagnosis which caused the patient anxiety.

In another conversation, the chatbot hallucinated, and clinical information was added in five interactions.

This ain't it, chief.

... the sale means that E.ON Next, which already supplies 5.6 million households, will hold 25% of the household energy market – or 13.45m gas and electricity accounts – and become Great Britain’s second-largest energy supplier

The supplier’s hold on the market is narrowly behind Octopus Energy, which holds a 26% share or 14.3m accounts, and ahead of legacy energy incumbent British Gas, which was once the top supplier but today serves about 23% of the market or 12.5m accounts.

It also deals a blow to the decade-long efforts to dismantle the dominance of what were the “Big Six” energy suppliers to increase competition and lower energy prices.

What are our anti-trust regulators doing? Between this and the TalkTalk thing, the oligopolies keep getting worse.

In a system described as “oppressive and dystopian” by a whistleblower, Co-op Legal Services is using AI models to record, analyse and award a percentage score for interactions between agents and customers seeking advice about probate, wills and estates.

The Co-op, which operates supermarkets, undertakers, insurance and legal services companies, said it did not recognise the criticism and said its probate advisers were highly engaged. It said it supported colleagues with AI, which is a “key aspect of our quality assurance processes” and helps ensure “our clients consistently receive empathetic expert guidance”.