The Metropolitan Police’s use of live facial recognition was ruled lawful by the High Court, denying a pressure group’s challenge. CC-licensed photo by Garry Knight on Flickr.
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A selection of 10 links for you. Recognisable. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. On Bluesky: @charlesarthur.bsky.social. Observations and links welcome.
Apple turnaround • Hypercritical
John Siracusa:
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I spend a lot of time thinking about what Apple should be doing differently. I wrote Apple Turnover because so many of my notions kept running into a dead end: I could no longer bring myself to believe Apple would do these things without a change in leadership.
When a company is described as being “in turnaround,” that usually means it needs to be restored to financial health and solvency. Apple in the late 1990s was in turnaround. Apple today is one of the most successful companies in the history of the world, regularly reporting huge profits, so the term may seem inapplicable.
There’s an old adage: never let a good crisis go to waste. When things get bad, people are more open to changes they previously wouldn’t consider. But avoiding a crisis entirely is even better. This is where Apple finds itself today: in need of turnaround-scale changes, but not currently in the kind of (usually financial) crisis that will motivate its leaders to make them.
New leadership is almost always part of a turnaround. In part, that’s because poor financial performance is one of the few remaining sins for which CEOs are reliably held to account. But it’s also because certain kinds of changes need the credibility that only new faces can bring.
So what are those changes? What are the things I think Apple should do, but that its current leadership seems unwilling to budge on? What changes require a level of engagement and understanding that Apple no longer seems to have?
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Siracusa wrote this in May 2025 – 11 months ago – when nobody (outside Apple) had any clue about who was coming next, or when, but all the points he makes (about developer relations, about premium products and experiences, growth and the future.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook will step down, to be succeeded by hardware chief John Ternus • The Washington Post
Chris Velazco and Gerrit De Vynck:
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[Tim] Cook launched hugely popular new devices, including the Apple Watch and AirPods. He used the ongoing popularity of the iPhone to build a massive services business, which now brings in more than $100bn in revenue each year selling subscriptions to Apple Music, Apple TV and taking a cut from transactions inside mobile apps.
But Cook had yet to deliver a clear sign of Apple’s next act would be, even as its Silicon Valley rivals charge ahead into the AI era. While other large tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, are collectively spending hundreds of billions of dollars on computer chips and infrastructure to train powerful AI models, Apple has instead opted to use AI from other companies inside its products.
Under Cook’s watch, some forward-looking projects, like the company’s car initiative, have faltered after years of work. The muted consumer response to the Vision Pro headset and Apple Intelligence features launched to help the iPhone compete in artificial intelligence have led tech reviewers and analysts to question Apple’s focus and future.
“While Cook has kept Apple’s growth trajectory moving at a steady clip, he has not overseen a step-change innovation that would reset Apple’s competitive position for the next two decades,” Dipanjan Chatterjee, principle analyst at tech research firm Forrester said.
Ternus’s appointment in some ways signals continuity with rather than a break from the past. The incoming CEO has worked at Apple for 25 years, and Cook will continue to be a core part of Apple’s leadership when he transitions to executive chairman in September. Apple’s announcement emphasized Ternus’s work with hardware products and did not mention AI.
Despite the questions around Apple’s AI strategy, the company is a strong position. Its market capitalization is over $4 trillion, making it the world’s third-most valuable company behind AI chipmaker Nvidia and Google. Investors barely reacted to the news of Cook’s forthcoming job change, with Apple shares down less than 1% in post-market trading.
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The pitch was carefully rolled for this, hence the lack of scared horses in the stock market. You can argue about whether the FT was quietly leaked the information about Cook going and Ternus replacing him. If you think that’s the case, notice that Apple chose to tell the FT, not Mark Gurman at Bloomberg. That must smart for Gurman.
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What physical “life force” turns biology’s wheels? • Quanta Magazine
Natalie Wolchover:
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Since the discovery of the bacterial flagellar motor in the 1970s, biologists and creationists alike have marveled at its design like medieval architects staring with awe at the dome of the Pantheon built by their Roman ancestors. It’s hard to fathom the level of engineering achievable by a billion years of bacterial evolution, especially with only 20 minutes between cell generations, which allows for a truly astronomical number of mutations and trial runs. Creationists hold up the bacterial flagellar motor as a prime example of intelligent design — specifically the concept of “irreducible complexity,” a biological system so intricate, they say, that it couldn’t possibly have arisen in stages through the gradual, stepwise process of Darwinian evolution.
Yet it very much did.
Over the past few decades, scientists have toiled to unravel how the flagellar motor works — namely, how it rotates and switches directions.
Now they finally have. A wave of studies since 2020 has cracked the molecular structures of the flagellar motor’s parts, including, most importantly, the small cogwheels that turn the larger cogwheel at the flagellum’s base. The final pieces of this dynamic puzzle fell into place as recently as March 2026.
“My lifelong quest is now fulfilled,” said Mike Manson, a professor emeritus of biophysics at Texas A&M University who started studying the flagellar motor in the 1970s. “I finally understand how this thing I’ve been studying for 50 years actually works. That’s about as satisfying as can be.”
The workings of the flagellar motor are ingenious indeed. But when I began interviewing these scientists about what they’ve figured out, I didn’t anticipate that the explanation of the motor would clarify all of biology for someone like me, who seeks mechanistic, physical explanations. The machine, I learned, exploits a driving force I had not known about (though biophysicists have) — the physical “life force” that powers processes in cells. This “proton motive force” doesn’t just turn the cogs of the flagellar motor; it’s the juice we all run on.
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Just like human-scale motors, this molecular one also has stators, and also uses magneto-electrical forces to induce rotation. The illustration at the top of the article is a marvel in itself.
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Lufthansa cuts 20,000 flights to save fuel as prices soar • Financial Times
Peter Campbell, Ian Johnston and Sebastien Ash:
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Lufthansa has cancelled 20,000 flights between May and October to save fuel, in one of the largest cuts by global airlines as jet fuel prices double following the Iran war.
The German carrier cancelled about 120 daily flights from Monday and said it would drop unprofitable routes from Munich and Frankfurt until the end of the summer season, which runs to mid-October.
“In total, 20,000 short-haul flights will be removed from the schedule through October, equivalent to approximately 40,000 metric tonnes of jet fuel, the price of which has doubled since the outbreak of the Iran conflict,” Lufthansa said on Tuesday.
The exact plan for the summer months would be published in “late April or early May” and include “optimisations to the short-haul offering for the entire summer season, thereby ensuring schedule stability for the flight plan period”, it added.
The cuts were confirmed as European transport ministers met on Tuesday to discuss plans to prevent the region running short of jet fuel, after the International Energy Agency warned Europe had less than six weeks of supplies remaining.
The EU was exploring whether it could source an alternative American jet fuel not routinely used in Europe, and might allow airlines to take on larger amounts of fuel outside the region, EU transport commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said.
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Lufthansa runs about 90,000 flights per month, so if this refers to May-October inclusive, that’s only 3% of flights (and 0.4% of annual fuel use of ~10m tonnes). But these are first steps.
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Internal emails show how Amazon raises prices across the internet, lawsuit says • Ars Technica
Ashley Belanger:
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Newly unsealed emails reveal the sneaky ways that Amazon colludes with rivals to raise prices across the Internet on “everything from diapers to clothing to furniture,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleged in a press release Monday.
“Amazon and a competitor will knowingly stop price matching each other, so that one retailer can increase its price, and the other retailer can match to the new, higher price,” Bonta alleged, pointing to one of three such schemes described in Amazon emails. “Thus, both competitors start selling at a higher price, increase their profits, and consumers pay more.”
The emails surfaced in a lawsuit that the state of California filed in 2022, accusing Amazon of wielding its tremendous influence as the world’s largest retailer to pressure vendors into increasing prices on rival e-commerce websites or removing products from cheaper platforms entirely. According to The New York Times, these emails offer “a rare behind-the-scenes look at how Amazon operates its $2.66 trillion empire.”
Amazon works in three ways to pressure vendors into manipulating competitor prices, Bonta alleged.
In one supposed scheme, Amazon proposes price matching by agreeing to increase the price of a product or temporarily pause its sales, which then allows the other retailer to raise its price.
Another route Amazon frequently takes flips that scheme. When Amazon sees a rival offering a product at a price it considers unprofitable, it pressures vendors to get the rival to raise their price to a level Amazon likes. Once the rival raises its price, Amazon then matches it.
Finally, Amazon allegedly follows a third, arguably more aggressive, path to get vendors to remove products entirely from platforms offering lower prices. That way, Amazon won’t be forced to lower its price to compete.
All three scenarios raise prices for consumers, Bonta alleged.
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All companies want to become monopolies, and then they want to rent-seek.
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Shakeup will help UK motorists without driveways to charge EVs • The Guardian
Jillian Ambrose:
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Households without off-street parking could soon be able to charge their electric vehicles from home under new government plans to help households cut their need for expensive fossil fuels.
The government has promised to pass legislation this summer that will allow motorists to run power cables through a charging “gully” built into the pavement outside their home without the need for planning permission.
This means that before the end of this year, EV owners who are not able to fit their own car chargers at home will be able to charge up from the power connection indoors.
Motorists are not allowed to string charging cables across the pavement from their home but almost half of councils across the UK allow cross-pavement charging if you embed the cable in a gully. However, this still requires permission from the council.
Charging at home is usually much cheaper than using public car charge points, meaning more motorists may be willing to trade in their petrol and diesel cars for an electric alternative if they know they can access cheaper electricity more easily.
This is partly because public charging has a VAT rate of 20% while home energy includes VAT at 5%. ChargeUK, the trade body for the charging industry, said equalising VAT would help ensure that motorists who cannot charge at home even after the planning changes would not be unfairly penalised.
…Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said the “overwhelming lesson of this crisis is we need to go faster” on the government’s plans to reduce the UK’s reliance on volatile fossil fuel markets.
“Because every solar panel we put up, every wind turbine we build, every heat pump we install, every EV on the road makes our country more secure,” he told the Good Growth Foundation’s National Growth Debate on Tuesday.
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However on the very same day: “UK to appeal against tax ruling cutting VAT on public electric car chargers to 5%“. This follows a London tribunal ruling that public chargers should only pay 5% VAT on the energy they supply, not the business rate of 20%. That would cut pricing significantly – and require a refund to public chargers.
So: Ed Miliband says one thing, HMRC says something totally different. Joined-up government, eh.
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Challenge over Met Police’s use of live facial recognition lost • BBC News
Ella Kipling and Dominic Casciani:
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Privacy campaigners have lost a High Court challenge aimed at limiting the Metropolitan Police’s use of live facial recognition technology.
Youth worker Shaun Thompson, and Silkie Carlo, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, brought the challenge over concerns that facial recognition could be used arbitrarily or in a discriminatory way.
In a major victory for the continued roll-out of the technology, the High Court rejected claims that the Met Police had broken human rights and privacy law by scanning faces in public.
The force will continue to use the technology, with commissioner Sir Mark Rowley calling the ruling an “important victory for public safety”.
Shaun Thompson has said he intends to appeal the decision.
Policing Minister Sarah Jones said: “I welcome today’s ruling because there can be no true liberty when people live in fear of crime in their communities.” She added that facial recognition technology would be rolled out across the country with “record investment”. Law-abiding citizens have “nothing to fear” as the technology “only locates specifically wanted people”, Jones said.
Scotland Yard deploys identifiable live facial recognition vans to selected locations around the capital. Once set up – and marked with signage – the cameras are turned on and scan people walking through the chosen area, such as a busy high street. The images are instantly compared to a database of wanted criminals or missing people.
If a face does not match anyone on the database, the system deletes the image instantly. If it finds a possible match, it alerts officers who then double-check the hit before deciding whether to stop the individual.
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You can read the full decision, which is very detailed arguments around Article 8 rights and limits of the law. It feels like BBW is not going to succeed in this challenge, though there’s still the Court of Appeal and, if allowed, the Supreme Court.
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Guinea worm disease reaches all-time low: only 10 human cases reported in 2025 • The Carter Center
Emily DSTaub:
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Only 10 human cases of Guinea worm were reported worldwide in 2025, the lowest number ever recorded, bringing the ancient disease closer than ever to eradication. The Carter Center announced the historic provisional figure following the one-year anniversary of the passing of the Center’s founder, former US President Jimmy Carter.
“President Carter always said he wanted to outlast the last Guinea worm. While he didn’t quite get his wish, he and Mrs. Carter would be proud to know there were only 10 human cases reported in 2025. And they would remind us that the work continues until we reach zero,” said Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander.
Poised to be only the second human disease eradicated after smallpox, the 10 Guinea worm cases mark a 33% decline from the 15 cases reported in 2024.
When The Carter Center assumed leadership of the global Guinea worm eradication campaign in 1986, an estimated 3.5 million human cases occurred annually in 21 countries in Africa and Asia.
“This campaign reflects the values that shaped my grandparents’ lives — the conviction that hope, hard work, and respect for everyone can change the world. Seeing Guinea worm cases reach historic lows is one of the clearest expressions of that legacy and our commitment to the communities where trust has been earned,” said Jason Carter, Carter Center board chair and eldest grandchild of President and Mrs. Carter.
Together with partners, including the countries themselves, the campaign has reduced the waterborne, parasitic disease by more than 99.99% since 1986 and averted more than 100 million cases of this devastating disease among the world’s most marginalized and neglected populations.
Guinea worm is one of 21 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), a group of preventable and treatable diseases that affect more than 1.7 billion people around the world. The Carter Center announcement comes on the seventh anniversary of World NTD Day, which is celebrated each year on Jan. 30.
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This release is from January, but it’s worth noting. Fingers crossed for zero this year.
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Does your boss have AI brain? • Milkkarten
Rachel Karten:
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Not only is leadership using AI in their own work, but they are forcing employees to use it as well. The problem is that many of the tasks that bosses are asking their team to use AI for are the exact ones that made them want to work in marketing in the first place. Brainstorming. Writing clever copy. Thinking outside of the box. One marketer told me, “It feels like our bosses are more intent on using AI to take away the fun parts of our job instead of automating the more menial tasks that take up so much of our time day-to-day.”
Some employees are finding workarounds. One person shared that their boss “doesn’t care about his team’s experience and expertise. He wants a summary from Copilot instead. We’ve started writing our own summaries and putting it on fake Copilot chats to get him to listen to us.”
So much of good marketing is instincts. Seeing the signs before anyone else. Translating a spark into a smart campaign. Knowing the line between brilliance and brash. With AI, we’re watching decision makers run big ideas through a machine that finds the median.
One of the people who left their job in part due to an AI-obsessed boss shared the worst offense. Their boss would put memes meant to be posted on social pages into Claude to see if they were funny.
I asked some of the marketers I spoke with if their boss’s use of AI has changed their perception of them. Many said it did. When the person who is supposedly in a role because of their experience and intelligence is constantly outsourcing their instincts to AI, it says to a team, “I don’t trust my own opinions on humor, storytelling, and marketing”. Which, if that’s the case, wouldn’t that make those leadership jobs the most susceptible to be replaced by AI?
One person shared, “It validates to me how absolutely unqualified and inept these people in C-suite positions are that they need a machine/robot to validate their opinions because they have no real POV and strategy themselves. They so desperately want to always be the right answer in the room. To have a machine that can’t argue back and essentially feeds their own thoughts back to them is a case study in the narcissism of executive leadership.”
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Come the day when some of these companies fail, and the AI stuff that was posted into the Slack chats will be.. well, read on.
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AI’s new training data: your old work Slacks and emails • Forbes
Anna Tong:
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When Shanna Johnson was winding down cielo24, the transcription and captioning company she ran as CEO, she discovered an unexpected asset: its operational exhaust—the digital leftovers that pile up across years of work and collaboration.
To close the company out, she worked with SimpleClosure, a startup that specializes in helping companies wind down. SimpleClosure helped her through the usual shutdown paperwork — closing out payroll and taxes, getting investor consents in order, and filing paperwork with the IRS. Then came the part nobody puts in the founder playbook: selling off cielo24’s 13-year digital footprint—every Slack joke, every Jira ticket, emails documenting internal victories or frustrations sitting in employees’ multi-terabyte Google Drives—as training data for the next generation of AI. For that, cielo24 received “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” which Johnson said helped her go from “I don’t know how we are going to pay our bills” to “we can tie this up neatly with a bow and be able to walk away”.
“I’m still a bit emotional about shutting the company down,” she told Forbes. “But it’s cool to think that our data could be useful, live on and help other people.”
It’s a clean ending for a messy reality: the company didn’t survive, but its work trail did. And in 2026, that trail can be worth real money. Johnson’s data sale isn’t an isolated exit strategy; it is a new frontier in the AI arms race.
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| • Why do social networks drive us a little mad? • Why does angry content seem to dominate what we see? • How much of a role do algorithms play in affecting what we see and do online? • What can we do about it? • Did Facebook have any inkling of what was coming in Myanmar in 2016? Read Social Warming, my latest book, and find answers – and more. |
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The Overspill: when there's more that I want to say 