Journalist, author, wheelchair user, podcast host, reservist @BritishArmy, columnist @Reuters, @uklabour member, proud of all of the above. Open to DMs
Roving
Joined December 2009
- Tweets13K
- Following5.3K
- Followers6.6K
- Likes1.2K
Pinned Tweet
Hello! My next book "The Next World War: The New Age of Global Conflict and the Fight to Stop it" is out on January 29 from @headlinepg. Here are the top ten questions I've had about the book in recent weeks…
amazon.co.uk/Next-World-War-…
I miss 2025, when hacking was still more or less illegal. But maybe that's a false memory…
WaPo - An AI start-up founded by ex-DOGE staffers quickly broke into Anthropic. wapo.st/4smNlsC
flipboard.social/@newsguyusa…
This is definitely worth a read…
'Watching developments in China’s emergency management offers a rare window into the military’s potential future,' write Michael Kolton and Winston Chang. aspistrategist.org.au/ai-ena…
It is barely remembered now, but these were also Putin's demands ahead of the Ukraine invasion – he demanded that NATO states pull back their own defences as a precondition for Russia not going on the offensive.
Perhaps as much "deliberately unacceptable" more than a sign of madness… Also perhaps a deliberate restatement ahead of potential far right wins in France and Germany that could seriously rebalance European politics…
Impressively delusional: "Putin will probably demand that NATO’s footprint in Europe be reduced to its 1997 level, before former Eastern bloc countries began joining the alliance." telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10…
Beyond Gaza and Ukraine, the brutal conflicts in Sudan and Myanmar are fuelled by demand for gold. Really striking that even in this resource age it is still gold that is portable and valuable and driving amongst the worst brutality…
In Myanmar, gold provides a livelihood to hundreds of thousands of subsistence miners, a source of revenue for business elites and armed groups, and a safe store of value for ordinary citizens at times of financial turmoil.
This case study traces Myanmar’s gold supply chain from mine to market, and reveals how the precious metal empowers armed actors, poisons the environment and divides communities whose livelihood options are shrinking.
Find out more: go.iiss.org/4yPFIgL
Increasingly feel it may be only a matter of time before some of the AI founders find themselves on the hook for a couple of millennia imprisoned for accumulated relatively minor crimes and misdemeanours…
Peter Apps retweeted
If done by a human, this would be a federal crime.
Wait. It was done by a human. His picture is right there in the article.
Anthropic's Claude bypassed a paywall to access Georgia voter data without authorization axios.com/2026/10/25/anthrop…
Great to appear on the @Telegraph @RolandOliphant discussing all things Iran, cyber and global geopolitics podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcas…
This feels emotionally resonant at the moment… Although it's also possible the threat will similarly abruptly vanish after several years of angst
Threat of AI to our daily lives is the white walkers beyond the wall in Game of Thrones. Everyone is focused on the wrong things, when the real doom is talked about as stories and anecdotes and nobody in power is willing (or has the ability) to understand the problem. Add mountains of money to this equation and its the ultimate cocktail of fucked.
From Canada to Nigeria, a new battle for defence sovereignty - my latest for @Reuters reuters.com/commentary/canad…
Peter Apps retweeted
So it begins, EasyJet 43KU (Airbus A320) currently inbound Glasgow with a minimum of eight passengers vomiting in the cabin.
Peter Apps retweeted
One of the (many) reasons I'm an advocate for conventional subs for the RN, even though RN types seems absolutely adamant we don't need them, can't use them, and can everyone just stop pointing to the abundance of evidence proving their utility.
Peter Apps retweeted
Isaac Newton would be losing his mind rn
Last month, we demonstrated high-rate alchemy: turning mercury into real, stable gold, beating CERN’s record by a factor of 10.
Last week, we enriched isotopes in the world’s most powerful plasma centrifuge, beating the Soviet record that stood for 40 years.
Now, we’re building a fusion reactor in San Francisco to achieve record power density.
Peter Apps retweeted
No modern conflict has ended by destroying the enemy’s ability to resist—not even World War II. To end a war, both sides must choose to stop fighting, and those choices always require nontrivial bargaining. Misunderstanding the relationship between bargaining and fighting produces systematic failures to integrate negotiating strategy with campaign planning, from Afghanistan to Ukraine to the US war with Iran.
New piece in @ForeignAffairs with Stephen Biddle and Yuri Zhukov on the myth of military victory.
Peter Apps retweeted
Ha ! Indeed it would be very impressive if someone was able to turn the Titanic around at all…
According to UK defence intelligence, the first maritime drone on drone engagement took place only this autumn in Ukraine. But a new age is coming and it is coming fast…
"Ghost Shark has teeth now." - @PatConroy1, Australia's Minister for Defence Industry.
The @ausgov and @Australian_Navy confirmed the payloads that our Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous submarine carries: sea mines, logistics caches, and air-launched effects for ISR and strike.
Ghost Sharks are rolling off the production line. Payload testing is active.
Peter Apps retweeted
There is so much to dig into in how Canada's battered media is covering the disaster at CFB Wainwright.
We *still* don't have an answer for why media reported 7 deaths and then kind of walked that back when Carney announced 4 ...
This is interesting language, almost flirting with implying US – and other – AI firms might be some kind of enemy… Although Australia is also obviously using frontier models…
Exclusive: A former Vice Chief of Defence will join top technology experts on a new taskforce to help Australia tackle artificial intelligence threats in the wake of the OpenAI breach of Services Australia @caitlynrintoul
thenightly.com.au/politics/t…
Once again I question the wisdom of a marketing campaign that says quite so loudly "we predict and anticipate enormous suffering while assuming everyone will continue to be fine with us becoming very rich"
Anthropic says it will commit 5% of its shares to 'public benefit fund' bbc.in/4z3qm8Q
Describing AI as "bureaucratic natives" is a very nice touch…
beautiful explanation. this is 100% happening. xitter.cf/sotak/status/211179423…
Peter Apps retweeted
Woah woah woah. The lead is buried in paragraph four.
Anthropic quietly pitches its own AI safety bill to lawmakers politi.co/4zxDFhl
