SubscriptionsColumn / Investigation: Crypto Politics
Dark money, lobbying, regulatory capture, state institutions hollowed by donor factions, foreign interference, and the financialisation of political power.
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Poison and Dark Money: Putin’s Strategy Extends Further Across Europe
Kseniya Kirillova reports on the Ricin Plot in Prague and how the Czech Republic — like the UK — has its problems with Kremlin gold and terror
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£8bn NHS Health Data Plan: Tech Arm Set Up Without Oversight Official Watchdog Reveals
David Hencke reports on revelations from the National Audit Office over massive IT spending and the unaccountable role of NHSX.
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WHITEHALL ANALYTICA – THE AI SUPERSTATE: Part 2 – Is COVID-19 Fast-Tracking a Eugenics-Inspired Genomics Programme in the NHS?
Nafeez Ahmed explores the troubling implications and assumptions of the Government’s AI-driven gene programme
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WHITEHALL ANALYTICA – THE AI SUPERSTATE: Part 1 – The Corporate Money Behind Health Surveillance
The first part of Nafeez Ahmed’s major investigation into the money, men and motivation behind a massive move into medical data.
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The Coronavirus Crisis: Beware the Hawks and Vultures Cashing In On Public Health
Azfar Shafi examines how the conflation of security and public health, as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, has the potential to hollow out our public services to an extent not seen before.
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CORONAVIRUS CRISIS: We Are Not All In This Together
Stephen Colegrave reports on how COVID-19 only intensifies the disparity of wealth, health and opportunity that is driving the UK apart.
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Nigel Farage’s End of the Pier Show
Otto English delves into how the Brexit Party leader is keeping himself relevant now that we have taken back control and his American dreams have not come to fruition.
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Czech Authorities Allege Russia involved in Ricin Poisoning Plot
Kseniya Kirollova points out that, given Putin’s habit for assassination, security agencies have no choice but to take new terror threats seriously.
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A Year On from the Scandal of the European Elections, Democracy is Still in Danger
Maike Bohn, co-founder of the 3Million Campaign, explains how thousands were disenfranchised last year and their plan to take the Government to court over a dangerous precedent.
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WHITEHALL ANALYTICA: NHSX Contact Tracing App — Management Outsourced to Private Company and to be Accessed Overseas
David Hencke explores COVID-19 contracts worth £8m handed out by the UK Government for its controversial centralisation of personal data.
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WHITEHALL ANALYTICA: Vote Leave Firm Tied to Cambridge Analytica ‘Configured’ NHSX Contact Tracing App
Nafeez Ahmed reveals how concerns around privacy and trust in the UK Government’s centralised COVID-19 tracing system are matched by doubts about its effectiveness.
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Putin’s Pandemic Double Talk: How the Kremlin Betrays Russians at Home and Abroad
Kseniya Kirillova reports on how, from prison conditions to repatriating citizens, officials are a major threat to Russians during the COVID-19 crisis.
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Parliament’s Standards Committee Demands Apologies from Two Government Trade Ministers
As one minister resigns, David Hencke reports on a rare dual rebuke to two members of Boris Johnson’s Government.
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UK Imposes Sanctions on Trump
David Hencke reveals that to abide with World Trade Organisation and EU rules, Britain is set to impose retaliatory tariffs on the US.
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Moscow Transforms Occupied Territories into Anti-Western Coalitions
Kseniya Kirillova on how Kremlin-controlled statelets in Ukrainian occupied territory are creating an international ‘anti-globalism’ alliance.
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Palantir Coronavirus Contract Did Not Go to Competitive Tender
David Hencke reveals that the UK Government’s COVID-19 contract with the data surveillance firm owned by Donald Trump-backer Peter Thiel was approved under an obscure statutory instrument.
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Russian Radicals Turn Trump into a Hero of the “Holy War”
Kseniya Kirollova explores the more extreme Coronavirus conspiracy theories emanating from Russia are created for export to US Ultra Conservatives
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Six Important Facts About Coronavirus Disinformation
Samantha North reveals on how COVID-19 propaganda is being monetised and exploited to promote political polarisation.
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UK Academics Get Hefty Grant to ‘Reframe Russia’
Sarah Hurst reports on a new British group which criticises pro-European projects and draws the praise of Russian state media.
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Coronavirus: We Must Resist this Exercise in Hypernormalisation
Hardeep Matharu warns against becoming numb to the constructed reality being created by politicians as the UK gets to grips with the immense human cost of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Exploiting a Pandemic: Billionaire Press Owners Want Your Tax Money
Brian Cathcart argues that, while journalism is in crisis because of COVID-19, subsidies to untrustworthy newspaper proprietors are not the answer.
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Democracy in the UK – How Worried Should We Be?
Mike Buckley observes how authoritarian takeovers are often led by elected incumbents and finds worrying signs in Boris Johnson’s populist approach.
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Putin Exports Medical Supplies While Russia Suffers from the COVID-19 Crisis
Zarina Zabrisky reports on the repression of medics and suppression of factual reports from Russia despite its international PR exercises.
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The Coronavirus Crisis: Disinformation Rings True As Our Pandemic of Untruth Continues
Musa Okwonga explores why conspiracy theories are finding such an audience and what this exposes about the worrying state of our democracy and the social contract.
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‘Digging a Grave’: Russian Ministry of Defence Threatens Journalist who Exposed Italian COVID-19 Intelligence Operation
Officials target Jacopo Iacoboni of La Stampa over his revelations about Russian assistance to Italy, reports Stephen Komarnyckyj
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Disaster Capitalism: Conservative Party Donor Cashes in on UK Government-Made PPE Shortages Amidst COVID-19 Crisis
Nafeez Ahmed reports on a new contract with the giant haulage firm whose executive chairman has donated nearly £1 million to the Conservatives.
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The Coronavirus Crisis: ‘Liberal Swine’ – How the Kremlin Exploits the Pandemic for Propaganda
Kseniya Kirillova exposes the attempts to discredit the West, undermine Ukraine, and persecute dissidents in the current Russian disinformation campaign.
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The Coronavirus Crisis: Why Are Lies More Attractive than Science?
Sarah Haque explores the gap between expert and public understandings of science and why this poses such challenges in times of public health crises such as the Coronavirus pandemic.
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The Coronavirus Crisis: The Crisis of Incompetence
Paul Niland explores how the global Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the weakness of populist politics and unprincipled power.
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A Good Day to Bury Bad News: US Justice Department Drops Charges over Russia’s 2016 Election Interference
Caroline Orr reports on how charges against indicted Putin Ally Yevgeny Prigozhin were abandoned just as the coronavirus pandemic in the US set a deadly new record.
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Big Lies and Rotten Herrings: 17 Kremlin Disinformation Techniques You Need to Know Now
As the US Presidential elections approach, Russian Intelligence expert Zarina Zabrisky provides a comprehensive guide to Putin’s latest propaganda ploys.
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Emigrant Espionage: How the Kremlin Keeps the Russian Diaspora Abroad Vulnerable
Kseniya Kirillova explains the influences that make Russians overseas prey to pressure from Vladimir Putin, and how to counteract them.
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Spies Who Go Into the Cold: How Russian Media Recruits Western Intelligence Officials
As the former director of France’s MI6 joins a Russian propaganda channel Stephen Komarnyckyj reports on a new phase of Putin’s hybrid warfare.
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Underground Russian Influence: Johnson and the Ghost Station
Turlough Conway on how a new legal case against Boris Johnson raises more questions about money laundered in London and Conservative connections to Russia.
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Sanders Versus Trump: Why Russian Intervention Will be Worse in 2020
With Donald Trump facing re-election in the US and the Labour leadership for up grabs in the UK, Stephen Komarnyckyj looks at how Vladimir Putin is trying to further disrupt politics in both countries.
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‘Rape of Britain’: Russia Rolls Out the Red Carpet for ‘Tommy Robinson’
Sarah Hurst on how the far-right activist visited Russia to praise Vladimir Putin and spread Islamophobic and racist propaganda about the UK.
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History and the Cult of Victory: The Kremlin’s Revisionist “Soft Power”
As Putin rewrites the past in order to control the future, Kseniya Kirillova reveals what it tells us about Russia’s strategic goals.
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Tip of the Iceberg: More Connections Between Boris Johnson and Russian Influencers Emerge
Turlough Conway investigates a new network of connections with the Prime Minister which lead back, via senior Russian oligarchs, to the alleged agent Joseph Mifsud
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Online Harms Bill: Our Democracy is at Stake and the Government Isn’t Serious About Tackling it
Kyle Taylor on the irresponsible omission in the Government’s new Online Harms White Paper — the protection of democracy.
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‘Pre-Fascism’ is Now Everywhere in Politics – What Can be Done?
Andy Myles looks at the democratic apathy that has allowed populists such as Trump, Bannon and Cummings to activate an effective hardcore base.
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Conspiracies and Chaos in the Democratic Primaries
Stephen Delahunty reports on concerns about electoral tech platforms, SuperPacs, and the fears of foreign interference resurfacing in the US Democratic Party.
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Political Advertising: How to Stop Polarisation over Campaign Lies
Stephen Kinnock MP and Kyle Taylor explain why self-regulation of political ads won’t work and how we mustn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
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Attacks on the BBC are Less About Broadcasting and More About a Divided Britain
Former BBC producer Patrick Howse demolishes the arguments about the license fee but hears Tony Hall has been a ‘Useful Idiot’ for those who want to destroy the public service broadcaster.
