Odds and Ends #28: How Fortnite is at the heart of a new Brexit dividing line

Plus the return of Jon Stewart, some truly world-changing AI, what we can learn from South Korea's nuclear energy programme, and my review of the new London Overground line names.

Hello! It’s time for Odds and Ends, your weekly round-up of interesting links and shorter takes, as a miniature newsletter-within-a-newsletter. An extra special welcome to new subscribers who joined after my piece on TfL’s amazing/scary AI tube station experiment. If you enjoyed that, you may also like this piece on how TfL uses data from the mobile networks to figure out how we’re moving around London.

Anyway, this week we’ve got lots to talk about: My take on what is actually the biggest story of the week (spoiler: it’s not the Wellingborough by-election), my view on Biden being a million years old and Jon Stewart’s return… and another big Brexit schism that will be opening up later this year, that I don’t think anyone else has really spotted yet.

So read on for that, and much more!

Reminder: Call your local Lord!

Before we begin, a quick reminder of the exciting Postcode Address File (PAF) news from earlier this week.

In case you missed it, an amendment that could finally liberate the PAF has been put forward in the House of Lords by Lord Clement-Jones, the Liberal Democrats’ Digital Economy spokesperson.

So if you happen to know anyone in the House of Lords¹, now is a brilliant time to get in touch with them and gently encourage them to vote in favour of the amendment when the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill passes through its committee stage in (I believe) a few weeks’ time!

What’s Happening Now returns

Air travel, bottled water and pop cons

Also this week, What’s Happening Now, my podcast with my comedian friend Sam Hampson is back for a second season. Each week, we’re diving into a different big topic and in this first episode, we’re joined by comedian Belle Emelie Gold to talk about the ethics of air travel. Plus we speak to material scientist Mark Miadownik about whether there’s any hope that we might invent something more sustainable than kerosene so that we can fly guilt-free. Go check it out – and don’t forget to subscribe!

Now let’s get on with some shorter takes.

This should be the biggest story of the week