❖ eaarthnet ❂

“EAARTHNET is a digital campfire in the digital commons. We publish articles and curate outstanding voices for you. Our opinions are just that — opinions. ✊🌎❤️

[❖ eaarthnet ❂ @EaarthNet]

🚨 LEAKED: The MoD’s £240m Secret Deal with Palantir 🚨

Over the Christmas recess, while Parliament and the press were looking the other way, a document was signed that commits £240 million of UK public money to a single American technology company.

The contract between the Ministry of Defence and Palantir Technologies UK Ltd—administered through Defence Digital at MoD Corsham—runs from 2026 to 2029. It embeds Palantir’s software and personnel deep into the digital and intelligence infrastructure of the UK military.

But unless you had seen the leaked contract yourself, you would know nothing about it. Because that is exactly how the MoD and Palantir want it. Here is what they are hiding:

The Art of the No-Tender Deal In standard public procurement, competitive tendering ensures the taxpayer gets value for money. It prevents cronyism and ensures the best provider wins the contract. Palantir’s £240m contract had no competitive tender.

Worse, it was signed on 30 December—a date synonymous with "taking out the trash" in political circles, when scrutiny is at its lowest. The contract number itself is classified.

The Section 43 Shield If you were to file a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request for this contract, you would hit a brick wall. The pricing section, the Intellectual Property (IP) clause, the liability figures, and all the contract schedules are heavily redacted under Section 43 of the FOIA—commercial interests.

But Section 43 is a qualified exemption. This means the MoD must apply a public interest test. They must prove that keeping Palantir's commercial interests secret outweighs the public's right to know how their money is spent.

In the case of a no-tender, nine-figure contract awarded without competition, this argument is legally flimsy. You cannot claim that revealing the price will distort future competitive bidding when you didn't allow a competitive bid in the first place. The public interest in scrutinizing a monopolistic contract of this scale vastly outweighs Palantir's commercial preferences.

"Should" vs. "Must": A Sovereign Security Risk Palantir is not just any tech company. It was founded by Peter Thiel, grew out of a CIA seed investment, and its largest shareholder base is American. Its founders have had direct relationships with US intelligence for two decades.

Yet, the contract states that Palantir staff working on classified MoD sites "should" hold Security Check clearance as a minimum, with Developed Vetting available when required. Personnel "should" be UK nationals where site classification requires.

Should. Not Must.

In contract law, "should" is a preference. "Must" is a mandate. Allowing a US-linked intelligence company to operate in the nerve centre of the UK’s defence digital infrastructure under a soft "preference" for UK nationals is a staggering loophole.

The Condition 14 Gag Why hasn't Palantir UK defended this deal? Why the corporate silence?

Because of Condition 14. The contract explicitly prohibits Palantir from communicating with the press, television, radio, or any other media about anything in the contract without prior written MoD consent.

They are legally barred from speaking. The contractor is gagged, the price is hidden, and Parliament was in recess.

What Happens Next? This is not just a story about one contract. It is a warning about the quiet privatization of critical state infrastructure, the erosion of sovereign data ownership, and the deliberate evasion of democratic scrutiny.

An internal review of the FOIA redactions must be filed. But more importantly, Parliament must act. The Public Accounts Committee and the Defence Select Committee have the power to summon MoD officials and Palantir executives to answer for this.

£240 million of public money. Zero scrutiny. It’s time to turn the lights on.

[❖ eaarthnet ❂ @EaarthNet]

The First Extermination
A reflection on Prof Bill McGuire’s response to our Eviction Notice
When a respected climate scientist and volcanologist like Bill McGuire looks at our “Eviction Notice” and replies simply, “It is, in fact, the first extermination,” the ground shifts.
This is no longer a warning about a possible future. It is a description of the present.
We have triggered the Sixth Extinction — not through some inevitable natural cycle, but through the cumulative choices of industrial civilisation built on Achiever-stage logic: endless extraction, domination of nature, and the delusion that we can engineer our way out of every consequence.
There is no quick fix. No technological salvation. No scapegoat that will absolve us. The systems we built to support our way of life are now being dismantled by the very forces we set in motion — rising seas, collapsing infrastructure, fires, floods, and the slow unravelling of the living web that sustains us.
Acceptance is the only mature response. Not despair, but honest recognition of our collective complicity. We are tenants on this Earth, not owners. The planet is serving notice, and the terms are non-negotiable.
The unitive path forward is not to terraform or dominate our way through the crisis. It is to learn — humbly, urgently, and together — how to live inside the limits we have already breached. To restore what we can. To reduce harm where we must. To build small, sovereign, caring systems that no longer treat the living world as a resource to be consumed.
The eviction notice has been served.
The question is no longer whether we can prevent the extermination.
The question is whether we can become the kind of people who learn to live respectfully on a damaged but still living Earth.
We are listening, Prof McGuire.
And we are ready to do the work.
✊🌎❤️
eaarthnet

https://t.co/6sDYWKYa6E

[Daniel Mayakovski @DaniMayakovski]

"Soy de las Naciones Unidas y vine del Líbano hace 2 semanas, como nadie hizo nada en Gaza, Israel está haciendo lo mismo en Líbano, no han dejado ni un pueblo en pie. 3 compañeros mios fueron asesinados y a nuestro gobierno le importa una mierda".

Un trabajador de la ONU en Canadá, denuncia el genocidio de "Israel" en Líbano y Gaza mientras enfrenta a la policía canadiense que reprime a los manifestantes que protestan contra los sionistas en las calles.

[RussiaNews 🇷🇺 @mog_russEN]

A historic event at the Kremlin:

President Vladimir Putin received Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan in the first visit of its kind in 55 years.

Official Russian-Tanzanian talks began with a formal ceremony and the national anthems played in the Georgievsky Hall of the Kremlin Palace.

Putin announced a 25% increase in trade between Russia and Tanzania and praised joint political coordination internationally against hegemony.

Moscow looks forward to Tanzania’s high-level participation in the Russia–Africa summit to deepen partnership across the African continent.

[𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 @OopsGuess]

China's construction machinery exports exceeded US$16 billion in the first quarter of this year. The main export destinations included Africa, Europe and North America.

Western media loves calling China’s manufacturing strength “overcapacity.”

But notice what they call overcapacity:
construction machinery,
electric forklifts,
excavators,
agricultural equipment,
solar panels,
EVs,
ships,
bridges,
ports,
things that build, feed, move, and electrify the world.

Funny.

They never scream “overcapacity” when the U.S. military-industrial complex floods the planet with missiles, bombs, fighter jets, drones, and artillery shells.

So the question is not whether China produces too much.

The question is:
Why is cheap machinery that helps farmers, builders, miners, ports, and developing countries considered a “threat,”
while endless weapons production is treated as “security”?

China exports machines that build roads, harvest food, move cargo, and improve lives.
The West exports weapons that need wars to justify their production lines.

That is the real difference.

China’s “overcapacity” builds the world.
America’s overcapacity buries it.

[The General @GeneralMCNews]

BREAKING: Jared Kushner has been labeled the "new Jeffrey Epstein" across social media.

[CODEPINK @codepink]

BREAKING: The House just passed a resolution to end the war on Iran by a vote of 215-208.

Just 3 months into the war, this is the earliest that a chamber of Congress has ever voted to reject an active conflict in U.S. history.

[Global Insight Journal @GlobalIJournal]

This was HEARTBREAKING

Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, who volunteered in Gaza, exposed Israel:

"I held a lifeless child in my arms. There was no equipment to save him. This is not a war; it is a massacre of the innocent."

[❖ eaarthnet ❂ @EaarthNet]

@iluminatibot @JohnMer35956106 🤮🤮🤮🤮

[illuminatibot @iluminatibot]

This is a real news article.

Read the whole thing.

[Middle Eastern Affairs @OpsHQs]

The Israeli ambassador to Europe is protesting the spread of this image. Let it spread all over the world. 🌍🔥"

[David Miller @Tracking_Power]

Do Jews face racism in Britain today?

No.

Not from the state or at any institutionalised level.

Jews are not stopped or detained by the police or uni services for being Jews. Muslims are.

And Jews are not structurally disadvantaged in the housing or job market, two more signs of racist discrimination. Muslims are.

Jews as ‘Zionists’ or supporters of genocide, do face pushback and opposition and words or actions that may make them uncomfortable, but none of these are capable of amounting to ‘racism’, since they are not against them ‘as Jews.’

[sarah @sahouraxo]

Israel executed Theodosia today in Qlayaa, South Lebanon.

She was on her way to take her exams.

Israel dropped a bomb on her car, killing her and her parents.

[conspiracybot @conspiracyb0t]

Before you listen to Bill Gates about anything, remember he visited Epstein's island at least 17 noted times.

[❖ eaarthnet ❂ @EaarthNet]

@owenjonesjourno Fascism raises it's ugly head, egged on by Farage & the incompetent Thugs of Reform
Nazis reunite!

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

Literal Nazis rioting in Southampton.

These are our 'patriots'!

People who value white British lives so much that they celebrate a German regime which killed hundreds of thousands of Brits.

Including over 600 killed in Southampton by Nazi bombs.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

MADELEINE DEAN: How many people were killed simply trying to access food sites in Gaza?

RUBIO: Well, since Hamas killed them, you should ask what their role was

DEAN: IDF soldiers shot some of them. Propaganda ain't gonna work with me

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

🚨 BREAKING: The US House of Representatives officially adopts H. Con. Res. 86 in a razor-thin 215-208 vote.

It directs Trump to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities against Iran unless Congress passes: A formal declaration of war!

[George Galloway @georgegalloway]

NATO just KILLED 7 Russian civilians in a bus in Donetsk

[Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen]

One year ago, I briefly flirted with politics by running for Parliament. I could not understand how it was possible that there was not a single representative in the Norwegian Parliament who opposed sending weapons to Ukraine, or why nobody called for a return to diplomacy. There is growing opposition in countries such as Germany and France, yet in the Scandinavian countries there is complete conformity and the media parrots their governments' war enthusiasm, masquerading as empathy for Ukraine.

I think my brief encounter with politics can shed some light on why a region that was once associated with peace will become a frontline in the future.
https://t.co/hMtMttyeAS

[The Iran Observer @tv_ir_X]

🚨🇱🇧 HEZBOLLAH LAUNCHES MAJOR RETALIATORY STRIKES AS EXPLOSIONS RIP THROUGH ISRAELI AREAS, CAUSING HEAVY DAMAGE.