An absolute pleasure to talk to @privateeyenews.bsky.social about Democracy for Sale's investigation into Labour Together hiring a PR firm to target journalists who were reporting on the undeclared political funding that powered Starmer's rise to power The Paul Foot awards really are the best

🔴 Keir Starmer promised to crackdown on "Slapps" - abusive libel cases to silence journalists and critics Then Labour quietly dropped it We can reveal why: a three-year lobbying blitz by libel lawyers who've acted for Russian oligarchs, Epstein + more democracyforsale.substack.com/p/how-lawyer...

“The likelihood of PII appearing in AI training data is only increasing as public data ‘runs out’ and AI companies look for new sources of high-quality training data. This includes information from data brokers and people-search websites.”

The (data) plot thickens. “NHS England has granted external staff from companies including Palantir “unlimited access” to identifiable patient data while working on a part of its flagship data platform.” www.ft.com/content/8ce1...

APCO Worldwide executive sought to ‘get rid’ of documents despite legal warning in dispute over controversial dossier on journalists commissioned by UK’s Labour Together. Listen to the audio ⤵️ Story by Miles Johnson

the water wars are picking up. One to bookmark.

Six lessons from history’s greatest financial crises - great read here from @robinwigglesworth.ft.com and Gillian Tett to kick off the FT’s Story of Money podcast www.ft.com/content/0bd7...

MPs advertising products on behalf of private companies, or being brand ambassadors, creates very real conflicts of interest. If the MPs code of conduct doesn't address this, then it's a major gap that needs to be addressed. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Great deep dive into how US law firm's entanglement with Jeffrey Epstein brought down its boss - led by the amazing @kayewiggins.ft.com www.ft.com/content/064e...

A tax barrister sued me personally for £8m for libel after we linked him to a tax avoidance scheme. Today the High Court struck out the claim, granted summary judgment, and ruled it was a SLAPP. The judgment is highly critical.

St. Lucia signed contracts with investors, which could have potentially translated into tens of thousands of citizenships, including with a company linked to a Montenegro businessman who was shortly thereafter arrested on allegations that he was part of a tobacco smuggling ring. #DueDiligence

On that note, the UK home office just revoked visa-free access to St. Lucians citing a threat to border security posed by its Citizenship by Investment programme #CitizenshipByInvestment www.gov.uk/government/n...

It was great to work with Michela and the brilliant Behind the Money team this week to share our reporting on ICE. Find it in your podcast app below:

This post is the single best advert for the fact that proper local journalism matters. If Jim’s team hadn’t put the pieces together quickly, this wouldn’t have been stopped.

Woken up to lots of unhappy messages about us keeping on this story Sorry but if a political org - run by a now Minister - hires private intel to smear journalists then takes these baseless smears to security services, I will investigate it. And keep investigating until accountability happens

Internal bank documents show the scale of secret shareholdings in India’s Adani, at the very moment Hindenburg accused it of “brazen market manipulation” An FT and OCCRP collab. as.ft.com/r/eb906e00-d...

🚨 Cabinet Office investigating Labour Together and Josh Simons over campaign to smear journalists But...ministers overseeing inquiry have received £150,000+ from Labour think tank Experts and MPs demand 'full independent investigation' New on D4S: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-g... 🧵

Tens of thousands of "golden passports", a movie producer turned sleuth, and the Chinese-owned company building a jail in the Caribbean www.ft.com/content/7767... "The total number of citizenship by investment citizens likely surpasses the native population of St Kitts and Nevis".

UK to ban political party donations from foreign-owned companies ft.trib.al/9IPn1l3

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... “Epstein got away with his crimes because nearly every element of society allowed him to get away with them.”

Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons commissioned PR firm to investigate journalists and their sources Why? Because they were digging into the dark money behind Labour Together, and Keir Starmer's rise Me on D4S, on why our revelations matter so much: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/labour-tog...

That @petergeoghegan.bsky.social is onto something here and he's not letting go of it open.substack.com/pub/democrac...

Ariane de Rothschild ousted her husband as CEO of his family’s storied bank, negotiated a big DOJ settlement and examined several mergers Behind every move was none other than Jeffrey Epstein, who had found his backdoor into one of Europe’s most powerful banking dynasties www.ft.com/content/0d70...

www.ft.com/content/8b04... Epstein helped Ian Osborne establish Hedosophia, one of London’s most secretive technology funds

as.ft.com/r/3152dedf-7... Ron DeSantis lashes out at ‘harmful’ AI in break with Trump’s White House

The Epstein rot goes deep “Having been invited in 2010 to an Epstein dinner with Woody Allen and then Prince Andrew in New York, the magazine editor, Tina Brown, replied: “What the fuck is this . . .? The paedophile’s ball?” as.ft.com/r/9fb21859-9...

Let’s try this one in foreign correspondent voice: State Security Forces Arrest Journalist Who Covered Protests Against Regime Official

Worth noting that the fee for accessing information on the Cayman Islands beneficial ownership search platform by a licensed financial institution or a designated non-financial business or profession is set at $1500 USD per user per year

as.ft.com/r/67e1bbe6-8... Jeffrey Epstein sent thousands of pounds to Peter Mandelson’s husband, emails show

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/u... "They are going to carry guns and use cars as weapons, then they run the risk of getting killed", Mrs Lipinski,62, said." 1. Read the first amendment of the US Constitution 2. Read the second amendment 3. Read the 10 commandments (from murder to lying) Then ponder.

as.ft.com/r/1e92e5b2-a... Trump’s ‘New Gaza’ vision contrasts with the devastation on the ground “…a bombed-out wasteland where Israel continues to restrict essential goods, babies die of hypothermia and Israeli troops open fire on Gazans almost every day”

www.ft.com/content/c309... "Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political and technological systems possess the maturity to wield it." Uhm, it is very clear that they do not possess the maturity. Just look at social media.

Nigel Farage attended Davos on a pass sponsored by the family office of Iranian billionaire Sasan Ghandehari, which told the World Economic Forum that the Reform UK leader had advised the company since 2018. ft.trib.al/V138xDu

This is one of the strangest and most screwed-up stories I’ve worked on. www.londoncentric.media/p/tiktok-lon...

So with all these Tories defecting to Reform, those voting for Reform because they’re disillusioned with the Tories will still end up voting for Tories (newly relabelled as Reform politicians) after all. 🤭

Actually…

Reform message? Stand with penguins as they march towards extinction … www.birdlife.org/birds/pengui....

First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

At the point the below was reported and the “defensive shots” narrative was being parroted as below, there was plenty of evidence that Alex Pretti was demonstrably not pointing a gun at officers (he held a phone) and was lying on the ground with officers beating him. So why repeat it?

5% of People Detained By ICE Have Violent Convictions, 73% No Convictions | Cato at Liberty Blog www.cato.org/blog/5-ice-d...

From “The Death of Democracy “ by Benjamin Carter Hett

Worth revisiting: Renee Good to ICE agent Ross: "I'm not mad at you" ICE agent Ross shoots her three times. ICE agent Ross: "Fucking bitch" Her car crashes. Bystander: "Can I go check her pulse?... I'm a physician" ICE agent: "I don't care" www.nytimes.com/video/us/100... Where is the humanity?

"The lies this administration is telling about Ms. Good aren’t those you deploy as part of a cover-up. They’re those you use when you want to show you can get away with anything. They’re a projection of power."

Chemical irritants were shot in the direction of protestors' faces within the same neighbourhood and on the same day as the shooting of Renee Good. Watch our analysis of one federal agent’s actions with @evidentmedia.org below: youtube.com/shorts/ETSQd...

And while we’re recommending YouTube films, here’s the inimitable @petergeoghegan.bsky.social doing the Lord’s work. Because nothing says ‘free speech champions’ like, erm, going to Court to keep who funds your payroll secret. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP0O...

No need anymore for "pink slime" given Trump pardon for the "Silent Banker" Julio Herrera Velutini (Venezuelan ex-donor to the UK Tory party who plead guilty to a misdemeanour charge relating to US political contributions and whose daughter last year donated to Maga Inc) www.ft.com/content/6172...

'I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that,' the US president said. ft.trib.al/17Mxfp9

So …Trump got a second hand Nobel prize from a “very nice woman”who “doesn't have the respect” needed to run Venezuela

Once upon a time, a President of the United States saying "fuck you" and raising his middle finger to an American factory worker would be front page news around the world. Now it's a "colour lede" on a business analysis. www.ft.com/content/36ab...

So wait: Jeffrey Epstein undressing children and creating sexual images = bad Grok undressing children and creating sexual images = ok (and trying to restrict that is an assault on freedom of speech)? Huh? Pizza anyone?