David Wells
@davidwellsct.bsky.social
910 followers 650 following 130 posts
Global security consultant focused on terrorism, counter-terrorism & technology (particularly AI): Former head of research & analysis at UN CTED: Ex UK/Aus intelligence
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Reposted by David Wells
davidwellsct.bsky.social
New paper out with the CoE exploring how and how quickly terrorists adopt new technologies. It identifies factors inhibiting or encouraging new tech adoption - with two case studies on virtual assets and drones - and analyses the impact of new tech on terrorism in Europe rm.coe.int/report-on-th...
rm.coe.int
Reposted by David Wells
alexhanna.bsky.social
I'm not an economist but seems worrying that the whole US economy is seven companies in a trenchcoat, passing the same $20 up and down
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Reposted by David Wells
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Reposted by David Wells
Reposted by David Wells
generalboles.bsky.social
Everyone who advocates for turning the UK into the UAE assumes they'll be the one with a marina penthouse rather than the guy working on a building site in 50c heat
davidwellsct.bsky.social
New paper out with the CoE exploring how and how quickly terrorists adopt new technologies. It identifies factors inhibiting or encouraging new tech adoption - with two case studies on virtual assets and drones - and analyses the impact of new tech on terrorism in Europe rm.coe.int/report-on-th...
rm.coe.int
Reposted by David Wells
boozybadger.lawyersandliquor.com
Dunno man, seems a little misleading to write an article about Trump describing activity in Portland and Chicago as “insurrection” with a 33 year old photo of a burning donut shop taken in the 1992 LA Riots (sans caption explaining that) as the header on all your posts about it.
The picture from
The article with a picture of an armed men standing in front of a burning donut shop. You must click through to read the caption “
Two National guardsmen stand guard outside a burning donut shop in Los Angeles on April 30, 1992.
The National Guard was called in to aid police during the second day of rioting in the city.”
Reposted by David Wells
jsrailton.bsky.social
NEW: breach of Discord age verification data.

Including some users passports & DLs

Age verification is a badly implemented data grab wrapped in a moral panic.

Mark my words, as age verification mandates expand, we'll end up more surveilled and less secure. 1/
Reposted by David Wells
rikefranke.bsky.social
And here we go. I never wrote this article, and yet it is cited here.

www.liberalbriefs.com/geopolitics/...

And of course, it sounds so plausible, I seriously checked whether I had forgotten it, or the footnote was slightly wrong.

#AIisnotresearch
Reposted by David Wells
picketer.bsky.social
We may be witnessing (and be about to *experience*) the greatest misallocation of capital in human history.
hetanshah.bsky.social
‘The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year… Outside of the AI plays, even European stock markets have been outperforming the US this decade’
on.ft.com/4pTQ3US
America is now one big bet on AI
It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy
on.ft.com
Reposted by David Wells
alexvont.bsky.social
When Yvette Cooper was Home Sec she hinted the govt had further material justifying a ban that they couldn’t reveal because of the legal process. If so, better to get that out in daylight ASAP. Because as things stand they have clearly not made the case for proscription to the public’s satisfaction.
Reposted by David Wells
davidrvetter.bsky.social
We have agreed that attempting to maintain a habitable planet is not in shareholders' interests.
dpcarrington.bsky.social
Global banking climate alliance folds four years after launch

- ‘Net zero’ financial sector group votes to cease operations after losing members under political pressure

#climatechange
Story by @kenzabryan.ft.com
HT @carbonbrief.org
www.ft.com/content/841f...
Global banking climate alliance folds four years after launch
‘Net zero’ financial sector group votes to cease operations after losing members under political pressure
www.ft.com
Reposted by David Wells
lottelydia.bsky.social
Also even if there is Top Secret material justifying a ban, it’s very difficult I think to argue that retired GPs and Quaker students holding up a cardboard sign are party to that information or responsible for it
alexvont.bsky.social
When Yvette Cooper was Home Sec she hinted the govt had further material justifying a ban that they couldn’t reveal because of the legal process. If so, better to get that out in daylight ASAP. Because as things stand they have clearly not made the case for proscription to the public’s satisfaction.
Reposted by David Wells
petergeoghegan.bsky.social
Matthew Syed’s ‘journey’ has been grimly fascinating

Been following it ever since he wrote a column endorsing the Great Replacement ‘Theory’

Wild what passes for ‘public intellectual’ in Britain
peterwalker99.bsky.social
The UK is “madly left, madly liberal, hyper-progressive”, Syed says. This is a deeply odd speech, seemingly from yet another person who spends a lot of time on X.

[I deleted earlier post which had the typo of saying, 'US' rather than 'UK'.]
Reposted by David Wells
defendourjuries.bsky.social
UNLAWFUL ARREST

This woman was arrested for holding a sign with “I do not support the proscription of Palestine Action” on it, a totally lawful statement to make, even under the Labour government’s absurd new laws proscribing the direct action group.

wedonotcomply.org
Reposted by David Wells
sturdyalex.bsky.social
Many pundits today are pushing the line that everyone who protests the genocide in Gaza is basically either antisemitic or tolerant of antisemitism. But isn't that precisely the conflation of the actions of the Israeli gov't with all Jewish people, which is at the heart of this wave of antisemitism?
Reposted by David Wells
drbenwhitham.bsky.social
Men in balaclavas set fire to a mosque in East Sussex last night. It's only appearing on the BBC's local coverage, rather than its main national headlines, despite coming just a week after the (also under-reported) firebombing of an asylum hotel in London last week
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Peacehaven: Fire at East Sussex mosque probed as 'hate crime'
Video appears to show two people in balaclavas at the mosque before a large blaze spreads.
www.bbc.co.uk
Reposted by David Wells
mims.bsky.social
👇 Midwest correspondent for The Economist
dlknowles.bsky.social
I visited the apartment building ICE raided on Tuesday today. Story to come, but you can walk right in. Half of the apartments have no doors on them. Children's stuff abandoned in some flats. *Citizen* residents told me they were arrested and held for hours in zipties. This is America
Reposted by David Wells
mtsw.bsky.social
A better world is possible
brenttoderian.bsky.social
According to the City of Paris, in the last 10 years 150K trees have been planted & 45ha of parks created in the already hot city, all intended to not only improve quality-of-life today, but also help the city adapt to & manage summer heatwaves of 50℃ (122F) by 2050.

Just the start.

Common sense.
Paris before and after street transformation New urban forest planted in front of Paris City Hall A Paris “School Street” where cars are removed and people space/tree planting are added
Reposted by David Wells
peterwalker99.bsky.social
I'm in Manchester for the Conservative conference, where some of the views on show are likely to be fairly extreme. As one example, these quotes from a Kemi Badenoch interview in the Telegraph are the sorts of things which not very long ago would have only *ever* been said by the racist far right.

Tony Diver Associate Political Editor. Ben Riley-Smith Political Editor. Aaron Newbury
Related Topics

    Kemi Badenoch, Conservative Party Conference, Migrant crisis, Reform UK, Nigel Farage, Conservative Party 

04 October 2025 9:00pm BST
3049

Kemi Badenoch arriving at the Conservative Party conference on Saturday
Kemi Badenoch, pictured arriving for the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Saturday, has unveiled a seven-point plan to tackle migration Credit: Eddie Mulholland for The Telegraph

Kemi Badenoch has pledged to deport 150,000 illegal migrants a year with new Trump-style immigration squads.

The Conservative Party leader will use this year’s conference in Manchester to announce how she would reform Britain’s migration system after leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Mrs Badenoch has unveiled a seven-point plan to “secure Britain’s borders”, including a commitment to deport small boat arrivals within a week, refuse any asylum claims by illegal migrants, deport all foreign criminals and remove immigration powers from judges.
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In an interview with The Telegraph, Mrs Badenoch pledged to stop “silly arguments” about human rights from preventing the government from doing the “right thing”.

She said she was “ashamed” Britain’s immigration system had allowed the emergence of grooming gangs, with “foreigners raping our little girls”.
Reposted by David Wells
gilesyb.bsky.social
"Polarisation may be an unhelpful term .... It implies that both sides are becoming equally extreme. Arguably the real dynamic is that elements of the right have hardened, embracing positions that would have been unacceptable a decade ago" on.ft.com/46TGRHs by @henrymance.ft.com 1/
How polarised is Britain?
Behind media perceptions of a sharpening political divide is a more complicated picture
on.ft.com
Reposted by David Wells
jessothomson.co.uk
The instinct of this government is ever further restrictions on civil liberties. It is authoritarian at its core, and at this stage needs to be opposed by anyone who at all considers themselves a progressive.
peterwalker99.bsky.social
NEW: Home Office announces planned new anti-protest powers, mainly aimed at pro-Gaza protests like those for Palestine Action. Police will be able to consider the "cumulative impact" of repeated protests and potentially order that they be relocated.
Reposted by David Wells
hern.bsky.social
I’m sorry we’re banning the protests in support of the banned group? weren’t they already banned
Reposted by David Wells
davidallengreen.bsky.social
The government want more coercive powers for the state against protests, and the main opposition party wants more coercive powers for the state against migrants.

Our political-media culture continues in a loop where the response to every perceived problem is yet more coercive powers for the state.