💯👇 💯👇 💯👇 💯👇 💯👇
Really great and timely piece by George. Illegal fly tipping has become a terrible problem on London’s streets. The rise of this criminal industry, enabled be the hollowing out of the state, should be a national scandal.
Predictably, Matt Goodwin's GB News debate was a disaster. He opens with defending the idea "everyone" uses AI tools for research now, and it's entirely legitimate. So the book is undeniably a product of using LLMs on some level. 1/
This is the largest oil supply shock in history in mb/d
The enemy gets a vote. Iran is now delivering pain to Trump via multiple paths
(1) Gulf Kings
(2) Financial meltdown
(3) AI tech oligarchs
(4) Fuel, fertilizer, food disruptions
Read our Polycrisis Dispatch:
buttondown.com/polycrisisdi...
how long before there are riots in the streets around the world as a knock-on consequence of #trump's insane #iran misadventure
Around 7000 Americans were killed on Iwo Jima and 19,000 wounded, and it was part of a campaign that ended with a nuclear weapon being used, so maybe not the wisest comparison.
The rise of Hitler salutes and chats on college campuses is reminiscent of the 1959-1960 swastika outbreak that spread all across the US and the world.
newrepublic.com/post/207877/...
Israeli forces shot all four members of the Bani Odeh family in the head, including their 5yo and 7yo. The 7yo, Othman, was blind and had special needs. This comes a day after Israeli settlers shot 28yo Amir Moatasem Odeh and stabbed his father.
1/ Disruptions mean countries will rush to exit US-led oil order
Worst case scenario for oil companies (best for rest of us) is that people permanently shift...what they call “demand destruction“
i.e short term pain but Long: Iran war will accelerate ongoing STRUCTURAL shift to solar+EVs+batteries
Spain permanently withdrew its ambassador to Israel on Tuesday as a diplomatic standoff worsened between the two countries over Spain's opposition to the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Russia murdered a child and five adults overnight
Breathtaking statement from Carney.
Basically that Iran's regime is evil and therefore Canada stands with US and Israel's war of aggression.
So much for the "middle powers" leading a nonaligned post-American world order. @katemac.bsky.social
A party that is resolutely anti-bourgeois while being staffed and supported by the bourgeoisie is an intriguing and inevitably impossible strategy.
Anyway good luck attracting those Reform voters who hate you.
Though the defeated Reform candidate Matthew Goodwin and party leader Nigel Farage have taken ill-tempered swipes at the electoral process, in truth this was a remarkably strong showing by Reform in a seat that is not demographically favourable to the party. Goodwin’s 28.7% vote share is the sixth-best showing yet by either Ukip, the Brexit Party or Reform, and the 14.6% rise in the Reform vote is also in the top 10 byelection showings by any of these parties. Though the party was comfortably beaten by the Greens, this was an impressive performance by Reform in a seat with many graduates, students, young people and Muslims – all groups who tend to shun the party.
While by no means understating the Green's achievement, my #BGE2024 co-author, @robfordmancs.bsky.social, provides a really important reminder here (observer.co.uk/news/politic...) that, actually, Reform's performance shouldn't be dismissed either.
Its doubly galling because Starmer and Labour have (and not without reason) spent years insisting Reform curious voters should be respected and taken seriously. Then with the Greens they're all "LOL you've been taken in by those nutters, U morons, don't be daft." Its playground level ignorance.
This is not a reasoned political response. Labour has spent two years making all the voting groups who backed the Greens feel unwelcome and unheard, and now attacks them for daring to back someone else. They believe Labour isn’t listening and Starmer seems determined to prove them right
On the latest episode of COUNTER·POWER, our director @nickdearden.bsky.social is joined by @seemasyeda.bsky.social and @lukecooper100.bsky.social to discuss how the far right went global - and how we build resistance.
Watch now on counterpower.uk or wherever you get your podcasts from 👇🏼
Last time a Reform politician said the minimum wage should be cut we looked into his businesses & found three of his former employees had won employment tribunal claims against him.
But despite what the tribunal ordered, he didn't pay a single judgment
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...
Yes Mandelson oversaw fees. I won't publish on X. This is from my Intro to FIGHT BACK, editor @danhancox.bsky.social you can read here: felixcohen.co.uk/FightBack/ @nicholasguyatt.bsky.social, @jemgilbert.bsky.social and even Alan Finlayson
This (about the 'new' Grammarly AI toolset) is absolutely terrifying, not because the tool is good, but because it is an easy, all-in-one, way to avoid thinking any thoughts or doing any work at all *and 3000 universities say its OK to use*.
www.carleton.edu/ai/blog/gram...
New special issue of Transnational Legal Theory on The Promises and Perils of Human Rights for Governing Digital platforms now available in full www.tandfonline.com/toc/rtlt20/1... - inc a piece from @joeatkinson.bsky.social and me on human rights and realising decent work for platform workers
I never really sign stuff. But this was different. It's not about trying to facilitate or block a particular party's route to power. It's about an electoral system that's unsuited to the political realities we face today and risks giving us government after government with no convincing mandate.
The stakes really could not be higher - it’s looking increasingly like electoral reform or bust:
www.thenation.com/article/worl...
As a proud serial signer of letters I had forgotten about this one (and I’m told I was the first to sign - so it was a little while ago tbf!). Britain’s electoral system cannot handle the present scale of political fragmentation and could easily turn up a bizarre result.
Time for change!
ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps.
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
I’m at an event in Westminster where a certain Andy Burnham has said it it “time to call to an end this era where politics got too close to wealth, too seduced by the notion that deregulated markets would provide the solution, when in fact they have been the problem.”
The new Counter Power podcast is out. I’m with @seemasyeda.bsky.social and @lukecooper100.bsky.social discussing how the far right has transformed and become a global force… and how we fight it 👇
m.youtube.com/watch?v=C112...
Parliament is right now debating a motion proposed by the opposition Conservatives to release govt documents related to Mandelson's appointment as ambassador.
But Starmer's govt has proposed an amendment to stop any releases that could compromise "national security or international relations".
NEW: Our investigation for @thenerve_news reveals not only that Peter Thiel’s Palantir is completely enmeshed in our critical national infrastructure.
It’s also the ‘cloud support’ for our nuclear weapons system 🤯
1/
www.thenerve.news/p/palantir-t...
The quickfire, backroom vote to keep Andy Burnham out of Westminster was a classic triumph of machine politics
The twist? It’s now plain that just one lonely man is operating the machine
And Starmer’s brittle command of it could easily crack
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/722...
Two things can be true:
1. Reform drifting down from their late 2025 peak
2. Reform still as strong or stronger than they were in May 2025, when they swept the board in locals.
Polling like this would mean a lot of Reform (and Green) councillors elected on very low vote share. FPP electoral chaos.
