YunoBlog

Author: tio

  • Make 2026 a turning point for cancer in Scotland and Wales

  • Tech Companies Shouldn’t Be Bullied Into Doing Surveillance

    The Secretary of Defense has given an ultimatum to the artificial intelligence company Anthropic in an attempt to bully them into making their technology available to the U.S. military without any restrictions for their use. Anthropic should stick by their principles and refuse to allow their technology to be used in the two ways they have publicly stated they would not support: autonomous weapons systems and surveillance. The Department of Defense has reportedly threatened to label Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” in retribution for not lifting restrictions on how their technology is used. According to WIRED, that label would be, “a scarlet letter usually reserved for companies that do business with countries scrutinized by federal agencies, like China, which means the Pentagon would not do business with firms using Anthropic’s AI in their defense work.”

    Anthropic should stick by their principles and refuse to allow their technology to be used in the two ways they have publicly stated they would not support: autonomous weapons systems and surveillance.

    In 2025, reportedly Anthropic became the first AI company cleared for use in relation to classified operations and to handle classified information. This current controversy, however, began in January 2026 when, through a partnership with defense contractor Palantir, Anthropic came to suspect their AI had been used during the January 3 attack on Venezuela. In January 2026, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote to reiterate that surveillance against US persons and autonomous weapons systems were two “bright red lines” not to be crossed, or at least topics that needed to be handled with “extreme care and scrutiny combined with guardrails to prevent abuses.” You can also read Anthropic’s self-proclaimed core views on AI safety here, as well as their LLM, Claude’s, constitution here. 

    Now, the U.S. government is threatening to terminate the government’s contract with the company if it doesn’t switch gears and voluntarily jump right across those lines.  

    Companies, especially technology companies, often fail to live up to their public statements and internal policies related to human rights and civil liberties for all sorts of reasons, including profit. Government pressure shouldn’t be one of those reasons. 

    Whatever the U.S. government does to threaten Anthropic, the AI company should know that their corporate customers, the public, and the engineers who make their products are expecting them not to cave. They, and all other technology companies, would do best to refuse to become yet another tool of surveillance.

  • What Hospitals Do After Tragedy—And Police Should Too

    What Hospitals Do After Tragedy—And Police Should Too

    When the family of Jabez Chakraborty called 911 in Queens on January 26, they asked for an ambulance. Jabez, a young man who has lived with schizophrenia for many years, was in crisis. What arrived instead were police officers. Within minutes, Jabez had been shot four times in front of his family. After four surgeries to try to save his life, several days on a ventilator, and now a long road to physical recovery as he remains hospitalized, Jabez has been charged—despite the pleas and objections of Mayor Zohran Mamdani—with attempted assault for his reaction to the NYPD’s incursion into his home.

  • Mickey Tunes In: 1930 Comics and Cultural Production

    Mickey Tunes In: 1930 Comics and Cultural Production

    How Mickey’s 1930 comic strip turned borrowed hit songs into the foundation of Disney’s musical legacy.

    On January 13, 1930, Mickey Mouse began starring in daily comic strips. This new endeavor “functioned as many fans’ most readily available source of Mickey Mouse entertainment.”1 Despite being a print medium, these works heavily featured musical motifs of popular songs—a staple of his contemporary cartoons. Unlike the concurrent animated shorts, which could incorporate synchronized sound, the comic strip relied on musical shorthand: fragments of lyrics, song titles, and musical notes that invited readers to “hear” the music. These musical moments are not incidental but intentional—Mickey participates within a popular cultural soundscape.

    Early strips utilize the cultural cache of these already popular songs to reinforce Mickey’s own cultural relevance. Through subsequent references Mickey becomes associated with music that audiences recognize and consider culturally valuable. Ultimately, the Disney company utilizes this association—Mickey and music as culturally significant—to lend legitimacy to their own musical works. Through this technique the 1930 comics move from borrowing musical culture to manufacturing it.

    The first instance of Mickey Mouse referencing a song is “Singin’ in the Bathtub”, a hit song from Warner Brothers’ The Show of Shows (1929).

    March 10, 1930

    A single panel—essentially a brief throwaway—the reference establishes the musical borrowing technique that the strip would employ throughout 1930. The song he borrows is a parody of The Hollywood Revue’s “Singin’ in the Rain”, thus itself working within a cultural borrowing technique.

    The borrowing strategy is repeated when Mickey and Minnie “sing” the parody’s inspiration, “Singin’ in the Rain” while camping out during a rainstorm.

    May 20, 1930

    The song’s optimistic tone mirrors the scene’s mood, and its inclusion requires no explanation for contemporary readers. The inclusion feels natural and of the moment: another instance of deft cultural association. Viewers of the time might have been reminded of the dazzling two-strip Technicolor sequence of the song in The Hollywood Revue.

    Going further back than just the prior year, Disney pulls reference to the popular 1926 song “(Looking At The World Thru) Rose Colored Glasses”

    July 10, 1930

    First published in 1926, “Rose Colored Glasses” is the oldest song referenced. This distance from initial publication emphasizes durability rather than novelty suggesting cultural staying power. Mickey is aligned not merely with recent hits but with songs that have proven lasting appeal. Mickey Mouse plus familiar music equals cultural relevance. At this point, Disney has established a framework that can be leveraged.

    Throughout all of these references, Disney leans on the popularity and legitimacy of other musical works to establish the “sound” of their comic strip. Each song that Mickey references circulated as sheet music, 78rpm records, or in popular films of the time like The Hollywood Revue. These avenues established each song’s cultural value. By repeatedly placing Mickey alongside them, the strip transfers that value onto the character himself. Thus, it is significant when the appearance of Disney’s own original song, “Minnie’s Yoo Hoo,” appears in the strip.

    October 28, 1930

    First introduced in 1929’s Mickey’s Follies, “Minnie’s Yoo Hoo” utilized the new synchronized sound technology that contributed to Mickey Mouse’s popularity. In March 1930, Variety noted the song’s presence as such remarking that the “Mickey Mouse cartoons have come to the front with a theme song.” This song quickly became a marketing anthem for Mickey.

    Cover design includes a drawing of Mickey Mouse playing an upright piano on top of which sits Minnie Mouse.
    Sheet music cover of “Minnie’s Yoo Hoo”
    (source: Library of Congress)

    While the other musical numbers referenced by Mickey in the comic were also commercial properties Mickey’s presentation of them is not an attempt to sell those works. Rather, Disney and Mickey seek to benefit from their cultural value. By including “Minnie’s Yoo Hoo” in the strip it moves from a commercial song to a cultural work—referenced casually and without promotional framing. Its appearance signals that it belongs among the other recognizable tunes. As with the borrowed songs before it, sheet music and recordings were available for purchase, reinforcing its circulation beyond the page.

    Today it is easy to assume that Disney songs have always held cultural significance. Yet, the 1930 comic strips exhibit the work required to achieve the earliest efforts of this. Through casual references to culturally popular musical works of the time, the Disney company established their own songs as culturally significant. Mickey’s work as the referential intermediary gave the in-house songs credibility that has grown since. The comics remind us that cultural dominance is rarely instantaneous; it is built, quietly and cumulatively. If you want to see how this happened go and read the 1930 comics in our collections.

    1.  David Gerstein and J. B. Kaufman, Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History, 40th Anniversary ed. (Koln: Taschen, 2020), 121. ↩︎

  • Cocaine Prices Fall in France Amid Surging Supply and Digital Trafficking

    French ports have moved to the “forefront of cocaine trafficking,” with supply routes evolving and production steadily increasing, the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT) said in its latest annual report.

    In 2024, cocaine seizures in France reached a record 53.5 tonnes, with the vast majority, 41.8 tonnes, or 78 percent of the total volume, occurring at sea ports. The port of Le Havre serves as the primary gateway; in 2024 alone, authorities intercepted 14.4 tonnes at the port, nearly tripling the 5.3 tonnes seized in 2023.

    Despite the surge in drug volumes, the seizures underscore heightened “enforcement activity against cocaine trafficking,” Yasmine Salhi, an economist at the OFDT, told OCCRP. “The volumes intercepted depend in part on the intensity of controls and the operational capabilities of law enforcement agencies,” she said.

    Salhi added that while record seizures may point to a steady flow of narcotics, the trend likely reflects a combination of “strengthening interception activities and an increase in available supply.”

    Traffickers are also increasingly relying on online marketplaces and digital channels to access a wider pool of consumers, “allowing traffickers to interact more and more easily with all consumers,” according to OFDT.

    The watchdog noted that cocaine is becoming cheaper and more accessible in line with the surge in supply. Between 2023 and 2024, the wholesale price of cocaine fell 9 percent to 29,800 euro per kilogram, while the retail price per gram dropped by an “unprecedented 12 percent” to 58 euro, according to 2025 data from France’s anti-narcotics office, OFAST.

    “When supply increases —for example in the event of overproduction or easier transportation— prices tend to fall, which is currently the case for cocaine, both at the wholesale and retail levels,” Salhi explained. She cited Colombia as a producer country witnessing “increased cultivation and production.”

    Even more alarmingly, alongside the increased accessibility of the drug due to growing supply and falling prices, its potency has also increased. The monitoring authority noted that the content of the active ingredient in cocaine has risen “sharply” in recent years, with the price of the pure product having declined.

  • UK Sanctions Georgian TV Channels Over Ukraine Disinformation

    The U.K. has sanctioned two Georgian television channels, accusing them of spreading “deliberately misleading information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    Tuesday’s measures against Imedi TV and PosTV were included in a wider package that targets hundreds of individuals and entities. The U.K. Foreign Office said the “landmark” package focuses on Russia’s oil exports and military suppliers, while the two Georgian broadcasters appeared in a separate sanctions notice.

    That notice accused the stations of promoting claims “that the Ukrainian Government and President Zelensky are illegitimate, Ukraine is a ‘puppet’ of the West, Ukraine is a corrupt country and that Ukraine and the West are seeking to destabilise Georgia.”

    In a statement, Imedi TV dismissed the sanctions as having “no value,” accusing authorities in London of supporting Georgia’s “criminal” previous government. It said it would continue to “serve Georgia and freedom of speech.”

    The sanctions come shortly after a change of ownership at Imedi TV. A share agreement dated January 30 shows Georgian company Prime Media Global LLC acquiring the broadcaster for a “symbolic price” of 1,000 Georgian lari (about $374).

    Among Prime Media Global’s shareholders is a local businessperson as well as Imedi TV management personnel, according to Georgian corporate records.

    Past financial statements listed Imedi TV’s previous owners as Irakli Rukhadze, Benjamin Marson, and Igor Alexeyev, partners at the private equity group Hunnewell Partners.

    Rukhadze, a U.S. citizen, previously maintained close business ties to Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder and honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party. The U.S. sanctioned Ivanishvili in December 2024, accusing him of “undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation.”

    Earlier this month, Rukhadze said owning Imedi TV was “not of economic interest” and “damages our main business — making investments in the Georgian economy.” He also said the channel had “avoided meddling in political processes,” and helped diminish “the danger of Georgia’s involvement in the war.”

    A spokesperson for Hunnewell Partners said that the firm “has had no involvement in the channel and has fully exited the business” since the announcement of the sale on February 6.

    Corporate records indicate that PosTV is majority-owned by Georgian MP Viktor Japaridze. Minority shares are held by the channel’s founder and host, Shalva Ramishvili.

    In February 2025, Ramishvili drew controversy after comments about Ukraine, including saying “Ukraine’s defeat is our victory,” calling Kyiv “the mother of Russian cities,” and describing President Zelensky as “a gathering of crybabies.”

    Contacted by Monitori, OCCRP’s Georgia member center, Ramishvili called the U.K. allegations “nonsense.” 

    “We truly serve Georgia, and Britain has rewarded us with these sanctions for truly serving our country’s sovereignty,” he said.

  • Rights Watchdog Sounds Alarm over Arbitrary Arrests in Iran

    Iranian authorities have arrested tens of thousands of people in what Human Rights Watch described on Tuesday as a “brutal campaign” of mass, arbitrary and violent detentions aimed at terrorizing the population since late December.

    The crackdown, carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other security bodies, amounted to a “coordinated, brutal mass clampdown to quash further dissent and conceal their atrocities,” the group said, citing videos of security forces violently arresting protesters and interviews with families of detainees and the forcibly disappeared.

    Protests erupted in Iran in late December after a sharp collapse of the national currency and surging inflation, beginning in Tehran and spreading nationwide. Authorities responded with deadly force, using live ammunition and killing at least 28 protesters and bystanders between Dec. 31 and Jan. 3, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

    “As a whole nation remains in shock, horror, and grief, and families still search for their loved ones in the aftermath of the massacres of January 8 and 9, authorities continue to terrorize the population. Arrests continue and detainees face torture, coerced ‘confessions,’ and secret, summary, and arbitrary executions,” said Bahar Saba, a senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch.

    In a Jan. 26 statement, the intelligence arm of the Revolutionary Guards said at least 11,000 people had been summoned by security forces. By Feb. 17, 10,538 had been referred for prosecution and 8,843 indictments issued, according to the judiciary’s spokesman.

    The rights group said that in violation of bans on torture and guarantees of fair trials, the state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting had aired hundreds of coerced confessions by protesters, including children, noting that such statements have historically been used to justify death sentences and arbitrary executions.

    Human Rights Watch said 30 detainees — including minors — now face capital punishment, with officials seeking to sway public opinion by labeling protesters mohareb, or “waging war against God,” a charge punishable by death.

    “Systematic impunity has enabled Iranian authorities to repeatedly commit crimes under international law,” Saba said.

    Last week, a panel of experts affiliated with the United Nations urged Iranian officials to disclose the fate and whereabouts of all those detained or missing after the protests, warning that “the true scale of the violent crackdown on Iranian protesters remains impossible to determine at this point.”

    “The discrepancy between official figures and grassroots estimates only deepens the anguish of families searching for their loved ones and displays a profound disregard for human rights and accountability,” the experts said.

  • Europe Files First War Crimes Charges Four Years After Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine

    On the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European prosecutors and Ukrainian officials announced the first criminal charges tied to atrocities committed during the war, saying cases have begun moving into court after years of coordinated investigations led by Eurojust.

    Authorities from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine unveiled the charges after a joint inquiry, Eurojust said. The agency supports the work of the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, which is preparing groundwork for a future tribunal on aggression. 

    Evidence continues to be added to a centralized database maintained by the agency, which helps national prosecutors coordinate overlapping cases.

    Since 2022, a multinational investigative team involving Ukraine, six European Union countries, the International Criminal Court and Europol has focused on suspected core international crimes, particularly those linked to detention facilities. Their database, established in 2023, now contains roughly 10,000 files from 17 countries.

    Rights groups say accountability remains essential. Amnesty International warned that any push to trade justice for peace would be unlawful and “morally repugnant,” while the United Nations experts said the war has fueled a worsening human rights crisis, citing enforced disappearances, torture, unlawful killings and repression inside Russia and occupied territories.

    The experts also condemned Russia’s 2025 prosecution in absentia of international officials who issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin as well as Russia’s children’s rights commissioner over the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children, calling it a direct attack on international justice.

    In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the conflict had left “deep scars” on Ukrainian society, pointing to mass graves and devastation in places like Bucha, Mariupol and Irpin. 

    “We have preserved Ukraine,” he said. “And we will do everything to secure peace and justice.”

  • GPs told to guarantee same-day appointments for urgent cases

    New contract will require patients in England to be given immediate appointment if needed.

  • App verification isn’t Google’s only evil