Data Scientist/Analyst | The Observer 1 year, full-time, fixed-term contractWhy are we here?The Observer’s promise is in the name. The Observer bears witness; the best of journalism being curious minds at work. It loves the arts and ideas...

🚨🚨🚨 We're hiring on my team at @theobserveruk.bsky.social 🚨🚨🚨

Details on how to apply are in the job ad, but feel free to DM me here or send me an email at katie@observer.co.uk with any questions.

(More info below)

observer.co.uk/about-us/car...

Me and @beckypinnington.bsky.social tried (and failed) to identify the user who made the infamous Maduro trade, and instead found armchair sleuths, forensic experts, and a congressman who wants to put a stop to obvious conflicts of interest for @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Who is winning the AI arms race?

New data from the @observeruk.bsky.social Global AI Index shows Europe falling behind, China pulling ahead, and the UAE rapidly expanding its influence abroad.

So what have we found? Here are three stories behind the numbers 👇
observer.co.uk/data/global-ai

Calls for Peter Mandelson to face inquiry over meeting wi... Patrick Vallance recorded contact as with Global Counsel, the consultancy founded by Mandelson

Exclusive: Peter Mandelson is facing calls for a standards investigation over a possible breach of parliamentary rules

Comes amid ongoing questions about whether the Labour peer should remain a member of the House of Lords

👇

observer.co.uk/news/politic...

US private money pitches weapons built by startups into field of battle | The Observer With large profits from arms such as drones, makers have little incentive to see wars end

Ukraine’s battlefields are shifting. Tankers and trenches are being replaced by autonomous weapons, built by startups and battle-tested on the frontlines. And, increasingly, they’re backed by private money.
My latest w @seitarowhite.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/news/busines...

Money trail leads through Carlton Club to Tories

Billionaire accused of using a 'strawman' to donate to German far-right party AfD is linked to company using loophole to make UK donations

My last (gulp!) in this series of joint investigations with @tortoisemedia.bsky.social and BBC R4's The Naked Week 👇

www.tortoisemedia.com/2025/04/11/m...

Hot Air – Explore the Tool

@chefboibex.bsky.social @ktriley.bsky.social and others have been working on an incredible new tool to track climate misinformation online. Check it out here @tortoisemedia.bsky.social

Introducing Hot Air, a publicly-available interactive database and visualisation tool highlighting the volume of online misinformation surrounding climate change.

Developed in partnership with C3DS University of Exeter and supported by Octopus Energy.

👇

torto.se/4j0NNY4

They say that in London you are never more than 6ft from a rat. I have discovered that in Tokyo, you are never more than 6ft from an advertisement with Shohei Ohtani's face on it.

Shoutout to @chefboibex.bsky.social for the groovy chart!

A look at Musk's tweets show he's only recently taken an interest in British politics – mainly in August in the wake of the Southport riots, and in the last few days. His tweets on the latter already have a combined view count of 1.2 billion since the New Year.
www.tortoisemedia.com/2025/01/07/m...

Tory peer may face probe over undeclared defence shareholding

New: Lords' commissioner urged to investigate after @tortoisemedia.bsky.social revealed peer's £28k BAE shareholding

@unlockdemocracy.bsky.social is also seeking clarity on when peers should declare interests below the £100k registration threshold

👇

www.tortoisemedia.com/2024/12/17/t...

Tortoise shines a light on peers’ secret shareholdings - Tortoise The House of Lords’ threshold for disclosure is 100 times higher than the US Senate’s

Exclusive: Dozens of peers own stakes in the UK’s biggest companies, spanning sectors including banking, defence, mining and energy, that have effectively been held in secret – until now

By me and @chefboibex.bsky.social for @tortoisemedia.bsky.social

www.tortoisemedia.com/2024/12/05/t...

Musk’s $100m to Farage will break our democracy Keir Starmer needs to fix Britain’s broken electoral laws now - if he doesn’t, we will all suffer the consequences

NEW 🚨 Britain's electoral laws are broken - but successive governments have done nothing

Musk's proposed $100million donation to Nigel Farage shows we are on the cusp of a real crisis for British democracy

But it can be fixed. Here's how, by me

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/musks-100m...

The Lords’ work: what is Tortoise’s Peer Review? - Tortoise A quarter of the members of the UK’s House of Lords do two-thirds of the work, Tortoise has found

5️⃣ @tortoisemedia.bsky.social: Following the huge success of last year's #WestminsterAccounts project, Tortoise's @catneilan.bsky.social and her team have now put the UK House of Lords under the spotlight. We recommend checking out the whole series with new stories breaking daily.

Peer uses Kremlin talking points and considers Russian ambassador a “nice chap” - Tortoise A peer who has repeatedly echoed Kremlin talking points in the House of Lords has joined a new parliamentary group formed to fight “disinformation in the public discourse”. Last week Lord Balfe was na...

Exc: Peer who repeats Kremlin talking points made vice chair of APPG set up to fight disinformation

Lord Balfe also described Russian ambassador Kelin as "a nice chap" and told Tortoise that Kelin would be “welcome in my kitchen”

👇

www.tortoisemedia.com/2024/11/27/p...

Lord did not disclose pressure group link while opposing lawfare reform - Tortoise A former solicitor-general has argued against libel law reform without making clear all his connections

Exclusive: Lord did not disclose pressure group link while opposing lawfare reform

www.tortoisemedia.com/2024/11/25/l...

Also shoutout to @ktriley.bsky.social for the vanishing chess pieces in the online article, which is my favourite bit of the whole thing!

You can see the jump in absences here, from December 2021 to Jan 2022 – when the new disclosure rules kick in.

Very proud of this piece, which involved programmatically trawling through around 1000 proceedings minutes over the last seven years to track individual leave of absences.
Amazingly, there's no compiled historical record of absences for the Lords available elsewhere (unless I've missed it!)

Disapeering act: some peers hide foreign earnings by going on leave - Tortoise Others say this is a loophole that needs closing

The number of peers on a leave of absence jumped 48% after new rules requiring them to declare income from foreign states were introduced, @tortoisemedia.bsky.social analysis has shown.

More Peer Review work by myself and @seitarowhite.bsky.social 👇

www.tortoisemedia.com/2024/11/21/d...

🚨 LAUNCHING TODAY 🚨

Nearly two years ago, @tortoisemedia.bsky.social unveiled the Westminster Accounts, a free tool designed to give people greater understanding of the money that flows through parliament.

Now, with Peer Review, we take on another arcane part of our system - the House of Lords

Treasury minister Alan Mak received thousands from defence giant Lockheed Martin. He says he doesn't need to declare it. Alan Mak, a Treasury minister, received multiple payments from Lockheed Martin including one lump sum of £2,500.

Alan Mak has joined Kemi Badenoch's shadow cabinet, so here's a little reminder that he accepted thousands of pounds from defence giant Lockheed Martin and Temerko-fronted Aquind into his "community account" without declaring them

www.businessinsider.com/treasury-min...