Lizzie Dearden
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lizziedearden.bsky.social
Lizzie Dearden
@lizziedearden.bsky.social
Contributing reporter to the New York Times in London, author of 'Plotters: The UK Terrorists Who Failed'

Website: https://www.lizziedearden.com/
Jesus that hallucination in the last part of the pitch about net zero and high streets is so weirdly specific
November 24, 2025 at 10:17 PM
I'll tell that to the next poor person who subedits my copy
November 24, 2025 at 9:57 PM
I am subconsciously advancing this approach to bamboozling AI by writing incredibly weird typos, like the word "perfect" instead of "piece" in my posts
bsky.app/profile/lizz...
Absolutely terrifying perfect about what happened when one editor started digging into a pitch that was too good to be true, and uncovered countless AI-generated fake articles in international outlets under the same byline

A plea to all outlets - start training people to spot this stuff
November 24, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Thinking of something similar in concept to trap streets on maps
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_st...
Trap street - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 24, 2025 at 9:50 PM
I'm not an expert on this but would it be possible to trick AI into creating red flags if it was used to respond to a pitch?

If people are feeding calls for specific stories into LLMs to make them create a fake pitch that appears to answer all of its asks, could something be hidden to reveal it?
November 24, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Here's a link to the story

I have sympathy for stretched staff who fall for scams like this but it's degrading trust in journalism and results in good, honest writers losing work and possibly their livelihoods

Insist on phone calls over pitches, verify previous work
thelocal.to/investigatin...
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
thelocal.to
November 24, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Commander Dominic Murphy, of the Metropolitan Police, said he could not name the ex-politicians but that several had attended voluntary interviews

“It is an ongoing investigation, and we will continue to follow that investigation wherever it goes,” he said.
November 21, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Police are investigating former British MEPs who were tasked by Nathan Gill on behalf of his handler

Several EU forces are investigating others who may have been instructed directly by Oleg Voloshyn, and an international investigation team has been started
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/w...
Former Reform U.K. Politician Sent to Prison for Taking Pro-Russia Bribes
www.nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:55 PM
New story coming later today 👀
November 21, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Police and prosecutors have made clear is that Nigel Farage is not among the politicians subject to the ongoing investigation

Police found no connection between Gill's activities and Farage, while Gill's defence barrister said Farage was "never the subject of any proposition" from Gill
November 21, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Gill is the tip of the iceberg in a network of influence inside the European Parliament, ultimately overseen by Vladimir Putin's ally Viktor Medvedchuk

The British police investigation is ongoing, as are probes into the activities of MEPs in several EU countries
November 21, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Some of the new mandatory minimum requirements for settlement, particularly the earning threshold and "high standard" of English, are going to particularly hit post-2021 health and care workers and their dependents

The government's position is that the visa threshold shouldn't have been lowered
November 21, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Mahmood used the term "Boriswave", which was created and popularised by the online hard right, to describe that group

The policy is designed to target people who arrived on the relaxed health and care worker visa and created what Home Office insiders call a "bulge" moving towards settlement
November 21, 2025 at 10:14 AM
While telling parliament that the new policy was about "fairness" and making settlement "a privilege" that must be earned, home secretary Shabana Mahmood's speech hinted at the government's more immediate concern - the huge number of post-2021 arrivals about to qualify for indefinite leave to remain
November 21, 2025 at 10:09 AM
- Affray and Possession of a Bladed Article in connection to an incident at Ritzy Barbers in Peterborough
- Theft of knives from Asda supermarket in Stevenage
- Common Assault of a 31-year-old man on-board a train travelling between Hitchin and Biggleswade
November 19, 2025 at 10:46 AM
- Attempted Murder of a 14-year-old boy in Peterborough
- Attempted Murder of a 22-year-old man near Pleasure Fair Meadow Road, Peterborough
- Attempted GBH of a 28-year-old man at Viersen Platz, Peterborough...
November 19, 2025 at 10:46 AM
The action is building up to the judicial review against the ban, which is starting at the High Court in London next Tuesday, and is due to last for three days

I will be covering the hearing, and the judges are likely to take time to consider their ruling before giving it at a later date
November 18, 2025 at 9:58 AM
According to a calendar released by Defend Our Juries protests will today take place in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Oxford, Leeds, Aberystwyth, Nottingham, Northampton, Gloucester and Truro

They will also take place in London, Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham, Cambridge and elsewhere over the coming days
November 18, 2025 at 9:57 AM