We can’t do this without you.
Can you help us grow our supporter base by 2,000 people to fund truthful, independent journalism?
Set up a direct debit or use your card to back us today: https://t.co/8aE0xvZJiP
The US military used Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot to fire 2,000 missiles at Iran in just 96 hours, a top defence official has said.
https://t.co/QADTNw7Hfx
What would happen if the world was run entirely by AI?
Grok would burn it down in four days, if this experiment is anything to go by. @MichaeljsWalker explains.
In a Lords’ committee on 17 June, gambling minister Baroness Twycross said the betting industry was “a regulated licensed sector we would like to see grow”.
Hannah Spencer wrote on Instagram: “This is exactly why Labour are so out of touch.
“An industry that relies on people's misery to grow needs action against it, not encouragement.”
"Nobody expected the scale of Andy Burnham’s victory in the Makerfield byelection this morning – including many of those around him."
https://t.co/l2IIijOW21
Join @AaronBastani and @MazzucatoM as they discuss what reimagining the economy could like – and if Andy Burnham is the man to do it.
Grab your ticket for Monday's event here: https://t.co/sOdTUpHSon
Local traders at a historic British market are in a race against time to raise £15m to stop it falling into the hands of private equity firms.
Brixton Market dubs itself “London’s most diverse and vibrant market”, with over 100 vendors representing more than 50 countries.
The market began life on Atlantic Road in the 1870s, with covered arcades built in the 1920s and 1930s.
In 2018 it was purchased by global investment firm TPG Angelo Gordon and property management company Hondo Enterprises, who put it up for sale last year.
Under their stewardship, traders have repeatedly complained that the market was being turned into a “ghost town” on the back of soaring rents.
The market is now being pitched to unnamed private equity firms for £50m as part of “a plan to drive £1.2m in increased profits by evicting tenants paying lower rents,” Londonist reported.
The original six-month consultation window was scrapped without warning, leaving only days before bidding closes on 22 June.
In response, the Brixton Traders and Community Association have launched a 'Buy Back Brixton' counter-bid, with support from The Advocacy Academy.
They have set a fundraising target of £15m to launch a bid to bring the market into community ownership.
"Brixton Market as we know it could disappear," the two groups said in a joint statement.
"Local traders actively create the wealth that is then taken out of the community by private interests, and yet are told time and time again that their needs don't matter and that they are replaceable by other businesses/chains who can compete with rising rents, despite being the ones to build this space into what it is.
"We now have two choices. We can either accept that the market will always be run by developers who don't live here, don't have any ties to the community, and only see our people as cash cows – or we do something about it. For us, the choice is clear."
Join me and @AyoCaesar next week at @EartHackney to discuss my new book, The Common Good Economy: a new compass.
The radical agenda of this book is to enshrine the common good into the very structure of advanced capitalist economies, ensuring that every interaction between public, private and civil society is guided by principles of reciprocity and shared prosperity. Not just redistribution after the fact. Pre-distribution: getting economic relationships right from the start.
19:30 BST | 22 June | @NovaraMedia Downstream IRL | @EartHackney, London | Few tickets left at link in replies.
A jury has refused to convict four pro-Palestine activists accused of criminal damage at a West Midlands arms factory said to produce military aircraft parts for Israel.
Iain Evans, 33, Hana-Yun Stevens, 24, Bea Sherman, 23, and Hisham Alkhamezi, 23, were charged with criminal damage after breaking into a Wolverhampton facility owned by US-based aerospace firm Moog in August last year.
After more than 17 hours of deliberation, the jury at Birmingham Crown Court was discharged after failing to reach a verdict.
During the trial, footage was shown of activists driving a Land Rover through the factory’s front gates before smashing solar panels and skylight windows on the roof, Declassified UK reported.
The four defendants admitted to breaking into the facility but argued that their actions were not unlawful since they were seeking to save lives by stopping the shipment of components for aircraft used in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Prosecutors said the case “is not about Israel, it’s not about Palestine… It’s simply about whether they unlawfully damaged property”.
The jury was shown a social media post explaining the reasoning behind the action where the four defendants all wore t-shirts featuring the names of Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes, including the author Refaat Alareer.
Defence counsel Mira Hammad told the court there was “no mystery about why the [four defendants] were there”. It was “on their t-shirts. It’s right there in… the tweet [discussing] military aircraft parts to Israel”, she added.
Evans, who used to work in the aerospace sector, told the court: “We believed the longer we stayed up there, the more lives we would save. The idea was that the longer we stay on the roof, the longer the factory would be shut down.”
After the verdict was delivered, a one-minute silence was held outside the courthouse for those killed in Gaza.
All four defendants were granted bail until a further hearing on 3 July, while the Crown Prosecution Service decides whether to seek a retrial.
Zack Polanski has been cleared over claims that he broke the code of conduct for London assembly members by failing to pay council tax while living on a houseboat in east London.
A report by the Greater London Authority (GLA)’s monitoring officer found the Green party leader’s personal living arrangements were beyond its scope and “no further action needs to be taken”. The case has been closed.
Polanski and his partner moved on to the houseboat, moored at Lee Valley Marina in Springfield, in August 2022.
The London Assembly member was alleged by Labour and the Conservatives to have breached the body’s ethics code after it emerged that the boat was his primary place of residence and thus eligible for council tax. It remains unconfirmed whether any outstanding payments are due.
Polanski said in a witness statement that he believed council tax was being paid as part of his mooring fees and never had any intention to evade payments.
He added: “I readily acknowledge that I did not undertake further inquiries at the time regarding the specific council tax implications of living on a narrowboat. This is why I have already unreservedly apologised for that unintentional mistake.”
Polanski also shared that he had previously lived as a “property guardian”, paying a direct license fee to a provider which included council tax in return for occupying an otherwise-vacant building.
“Whilst unconventional, this became my normal experience of housing administration and associated household outgoings,” Mr Polanski wrote. “I have personal experience of financial hardship and housing insecurity.
“Having lived through periods of economic difficulty on a limited income, I understand first-hand the challenges faced by many Londoners.”
A Green party spokesperson said: “The monitoring officer for the Greater London Authority has conducted an independent inquiry into the complaints made against Mr Polanski and decided to take no further action. We therefore consider this matter closed.”
An Israeli firm used large numbers of fake social media accounts to target politicians who have criticised Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
https://t.co/lxQf0itvQQ