5 h. ago Better at everything: how AI could make human beings irrelevant

The end of civilisation might look less like a war, and more like a love story. Can we avoid being willing participants in our own downfall?Right now, most big AI labs have a team figuring out ways that rogue AIs might escape supervision, or secretly collude with each other against humans. But there’s a more mundane way we could lose control of civilisation: we might simply become obsolete. This wouldn’t require any hidden plots – if AI and robotics keep improving, it’s what happens by default.How so? Well, AI developers are firmly on track to build better replacements for humans in almost every role we play: not just economically as workers and decision-makers, but culturally as artists and creators, and even socially as friends and romantic companions. What place will humans have when AI can do everything we do, only better? Continue reading...

Politics

13 h. ago ‘They threatened to bulldoze my house’: fear and violence stalk journalists in Modi’s India

Attacks and self censorship, draconian anti-terror laws and tycoons’ control over the media, are all seen as eroding the country’s democracyAt her home in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Harleen Kapoor* reflects with melancholy on how, since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, she has spent a lot of time in the office instead of out on the powerful human rights exposés she used to work on.Stories from some of the most deprived areas in the country were her forte. But, she says, in the climate of fear that has built up in India in the past decade, her media outlet has made it clear that her reports on topics such as sexual violence against lower-caste women and the harassment of Muslims are no longer welcome. Continue reading...

Events

26 h. ago ‘What is left of our democracy?’: freed Palestinian human rights advocate warns of US authoritarian rule

Mohsen Mahdawi, student detained by Ice last month, pens blistering attack on Trump’s deportation policiesMohsen Mahdawi, the Palestinian green-card holder and Columbia University student freed on Wednesday after more than two weeks in immigration detention, has issued a stark warning about the US’s descent into authoritarianism.“Once the repression of dissent, in the name of security, becomes a key objective of a government, authoritarian rule and even martial law are not far off. When they look at my case, all Americans should ask themselves: what is left of our democracy, and who will be targeted next?” said Mahddawi in an op-ed for the New York Times. Continue reading...

Events

27 h. ago Watch as 100s of trans rights campaigners protest at Glasgow base of Equalities and Human Rights Commission

The Supreme Court ruled that a woman in the UK Equality Act refers to a biological woman

Events

31 h. ago Assisted dying about ‘human cost’ not pounds and pence, MP behind Bill says

Kim Leadbetter said the Bill was ‘the most robust piece of legislation in this area in the world’.

Economics

32 h. ago 'My girlfriend acts like a puppy – we get called weird but I love her'

A woman has opened up about how dressing and acting like a puppy with her partner has improved her mental health, saying that it helps her to leave human stresses behind

Politics

35 h. ago Sinner set for hero’s welcome in Rome but how will the locker room react?

The world No 1 returns at next week’s Italian Open after a three-month anti-doping suspension amid a saga that left players questioning the fairness of the systemJannik Sinner could not help but crack a wry smile when he faced the media before the US Open last year in the aftermath of his anti-doping case, one of the most high-profile in the history of tennis.Sinner, the best player in the world, had been attempting to emphasise just how low the concentration of the banned substance clostebol had been in his urine sample, and therefore how irrelevant it was to his performances on the court. Continue reading...

Politics

37 h. ago Does human rights law really stop the UK controlling migration? No – and Keir Starmer knows that | Jamie Burton

It would be wrong for Labour to collude in the attack on the European convention. It’s fuelled by myths and false narrativesHere’s a recent quote from a Downing Street source: “We have to be able to say something on this that isn’t just defending the status quo.”The aide was discussing the European convention on human rights (ECHR), a postwar treaty to protect the freedoms of people in Europe, ratified by the UK in 1951. Although it was also central to Keir Starmer’s entire pre-political career, his government is looking to water down some of the key provisions.Jamie Burton is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers. Finnian Clarke, also a barrister at Doughty Street, co-authored Continue reading...

Politics

51 h. ago A man exposed himself to the world’s deadliest snake venom so scientists could create a revolutionary antidote

The antivenom was created from a human donor with "once-in-a-lifetime" immunity after exposing himself to the venom of various deadly snakes

Events

52 h. ago Scottish ministers drop plans to outlaw misogyny and conversion practices

Government says the measures are too legally complex to deliver before the next Holyrood electionThe Scottish government has dropped plans to outlaw misogyny and conversion practices before the next Holyrood election, arguing they are too legally complex to deliver in time.Ministers had long promised a bill to criminalise misogyny after Nicola Sturgeon, the then first minister, accepted recommendations from a working group led by the lawyer and human rights expert Helena Kennedy in 2022. Continue reading...

Politics

53 h. ago We fought and beat the government in the courts because every Briton has the right to protest | Akiko Hart

The appeal court verdict makes clear these anti-protest laws should never have existed. Labour must now reflect on what sort of democracy it wants us to beAkiko Hart is the director of the human rights organisation LibertyWhen we beat the Conservative government over its anti-democratic protest laws in court last year, we thought that would be the end of the story. Judges in the high court had made it very clear that laws that gave the police almost unlimited powers to crack down on any protest that caused “more than minor” disruption were unlawful. It ordered that the laws should be scrapped. We celebrated. Given that the incoming Labour government had voted down these very same laws a year earlier, we believed that protest would be taken out of the culture wars arena and put back into the sacred space of fundamental rights.Yet Labour dragged us back to court, in a misguided attempt to be seen to look tough on public order. And now today, on a day of much Labour soul-searching, we’...

Events

54 h. ago Annual benefits bill for refugee households hits £1BILLION after surging by a third in just one year, leading to calls for Britain to leave human rights treaty

Government data revealed the total amount of universal credit paid to households with at least one refugee claimant soared to £1.1billion last year, up from £828million in 2023.

Economics

55 h. ago ECB bans transgender women from taking part in women’s and girl’s cricket

Trans women had been free to play up to tier three of domestic cricket and throughout the recreational game.

Politics

55 h. ago The ultimate guide to buying and selling a home, according to KIRSTIE ALLSOPP and PHIL SPENCER

It's 25 years since Location, Location, Location first aired and the series has seen every type of human drama.

Politics

56 h. ago There are specific brain cells that enable intelligent behaviour, scientists say

Mohamady El-Gaby reports on which brain cells are behind human intelligent behaviour

Politics

58 h. ago Beachgoers 'leave human waste in gardens' and people are 'peeing in bins'

Residents near a popular beach claimed there was "human waste" in their gardens and jet-skiers were "splashing about under the influence of alcohol" at a council meeting

Politics

60 h. ago Red Pockets by Alice Mah review – finding hope amid the climate crisis

A professor’s quest to make sense of her eco-anxiety takes her from her ancestral village in China to Cop 26 and beyondEco-anxiety is not an official medical diagnosis, but everyone knows what it means. The American Psychological Association defines it as “the chronic fear of environmental cataclysm that comes from observing the seemingly irrevocable impact of climate change and the associated concern for one’s future and that of next generations”. Fear of the future, an ache for the past, the present awash with disquiet: into this turmoil Alice Mah’s new book appears like a little red boat, keeping hope afloat against all odds.Mah is a professor of urban and environmental studies at the University of Glasgow as well as an activist passionately concerned with pollution, ecological breakdown and climate justice. Her previous books, Petrochemical Planet and Plastic Unlimited, catalogued the catastrophic impacts of the petrochemical industry on the natural and human world. In Red ...

Events

61 h. ago List of child welfare research grants marked for termination in mistaken HHS email

An employee of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent an email Wednesday that mistakenly included plans to terminate more than 150 research grants related to child and family well-being

Politics

61 h. ago Email mistake reveals secret plans to end research on Head Start and other child safety net programs

A Department of Health and Human Services employee has emailed dozens of people this week, mistakenly including plans to slash research related to child safety net programs

Society

67 h. ago Equalities watchdog lashes out at critics of Supreme Court trans ruling who question judges' 'integrity'

Baroness Falkner, the chairwoman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) the said it was unacceptable for people to question the integrity of Supreme Court justices.

Events