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?

as.ft.com/r/5fde5262-a... Elon Musk’s AI chatbot generates child sexual images Unfortunately unsurprising.

www.ft.com/content/8816... Influencers and OnlyFans models dominate US ‘extraordinary’ artist visas 🤪

London emerges as frontline in US-China battle over robotaxis #VassalState Tells you a lot about the UK

How a failed baseball player and former stockbroker became the go to arms dealer for US proxy wars Top weekend read from @miles-johnson.bsky.social

Big FT Investigation - Binance allowed suspicious accounts to operate even after 2023 US plea agreement. Details of the transactions come after Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in Oct. The Trump family has since expanded business ties with Zhao’s exchange www.ft.com/content/5d8a...

On Binance in Venezuela: www.ft.com/content/dc68...

@oliverbullough.bsky.social @mattcollin.bsky.social

Scammers, spies and triads: inside cyber-crime’s $15tn global empire www.ft.com/content/bdc7... The @financialtimes.com digs into the proliferation of crime-as-a-service tools and the global scam industry.

There is much to applaud in Labour's new inquiry into foreign interference in British politics But it needs to go much further if it's to tackle how foreign influence really works - and properly protect British democracy New by me on Democracy for Sale democracyforsale.substack.com/p/labours-fo...

About time ... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #foreignInfluence #elections

www.ft.com/content/c49a... #facial_recognition #BigBrother

www.ft.com/content/ec1e... #Reform #moneymoneymoney

Judge: ‘The court regards bribery as a malignancy at the heart of public life…. those entrusted with public leadership are required to adhere to the highest standards of probity’ #AntiCorruption #UKPolitics www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c8...

www.ft.com/content/363f... We asked a number of Hizbollah-linked sanctioned charities how they take donations. We found they routinely instructed donors to direct financial transfers through Lebanese digital payments providers, via private individuals. #AML #CFT #emoney @financialtimes.com

This deserves *way* more attention than it’s getting Reform’s former Wales leader admits he received corrupt payments in exchange for making statements in the European Parliament to promote Russia’s interests in #Ukraine.

The Boris Files. "Leak exposes how former leader has used publicly subsidised office to manage commercial interests." Evening reading from the Guardian. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/seri... From meeting with Peter Thiel to a £200,000 payment post visit to Nicolas Maduro from a "hedge fund..

“Meta says its own AI created inappropriate images, violating its policies” Says it all.