> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Donald’s done, Rise of the Robots, Google and Gaza - URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/weekly-email-071126/ - Published: 2026-11-07T07:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-07T07:00:00.000Z - Description: openDemocracy Weekly Newsletter 07 November 2026 - Author: openDemocracy - Tags: Newsletter You can come out now, everything is fine. After witnessing years of mass deportations, war in the Middle East, blatant self-enrichment and gilded vanity construction projects, US voters have finally had enough. The markets responded by erasing $3.2trn of value, largely on fears that the newly elected House and Senate will finally step in to check Big Tech and AI companies; but as Brazilian economist Pedro Bastos writes for us this week, there is now a pattern of markets punishing progressive governments (Liz Truss being the outlier here). Tech companies insist they are open to regulation, but lobby as hard as they can to defeat any laws that constrain their ambitions. To witness this in action, openDemocracy’s deputy editor Indra Warnes filed scores of Freedom of Information requests and travelled to Yorkshire, where a Silicon Valley start-up has won permission to trial its self-driving delivery robots on city pavements, putting pedestrians at risk of injury and surveillance. As one expert told Indra, cities across England have become the sites of a dangerous experiment, in which an American tech company hoping to profit from replacing human couriers with robots has made UK pedestrians its unwitting “human testers”. The next election could come any time, and we are determined to ****expose the flow of dark money in politics** before then. To do so, we need to recruit 500 new monthly donors by the end of 2026\. We're a third of the way there – but still have a long way to go. Will you help us ****fight those funding the politics of hate,** with a ****monthly donation today?** [Become a regular supporter ](#/portal/signup) Also in this issue, our tech reporter Evie Breese profiles Sofia Liguori, a Google whistleblower who quit her job after witnessing how the company’s products were complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza; Ethan Shone reports on the pressure campaign to force the UK government to deliver on its pledge to release £1.2bn in pension funds to coal miners, and Paul Rogers writes on the quartet of recent election results in Serbia, Brazil, the US and Israel. Long-time openDemocracy hand Adam Ramsay has a new book out. Listen to our podcast on why he thinks it is time to break up the UK (he really does!). Finally, it was artist, critic, painter, poet, and openDemocracy contributor John Berger’s centenary this week. Do read our founding editor Anthony Barnett introduction to Berger’s writings in openDemocracy. “The future’s unique gift is desire,” Berger wrote for us over 20 years ago when Israel built its so-called “separation wall” to reduce the West Bank to mass incarceration. “The multitudes have answers to questions which have not yet been asked, and the capacity to outlive the walls.” On weeks like this, when multitudes around the world – from India to Brazil, France to Serbia to the United States – are rising up as one, one can’t help but hope. Thank you as always for reading us and supporting us. Your regular donations have helped us publish critical thinking and investigative journalism spanning over a quarter of a century. If you aren’t a regular contributor, consider becoming one today. Aman Sethi Editor-in-chief --- [How Silicon Valley lobbied to put delivery robots on UK pavementsRevealed: Ministers allowed our streets to become ‘test ground’ for robots amid lobbying from Starship Technologies![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/icon/multi_solo-785ea5d3-0a39-470a-a71f-2e174d47f55c.png)openDemocracyIndra Warnes![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/thumbnail/Boardgame-version-100-93c8e863-2e8b-4cc4-be59-eafd97f72186.jpg)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/starship-technologies-delivery-robots-uk-pavements-silicon-valley-lobbying/) [‘Nice face of the devil’: Google whistleblower on AI, Gaza, and breaking NDASofia Liguori tells openDemocracy about Project Nimbus and resignation that led to Google U-turn on silencing ex-staff![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/icon/multi_solo-60a188dd-ed0a-4a5d-9570-63e7320a02ba.png)openDemocracyEvie Breese![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/thumbnail/Sofia-Liguori-Google-DeepMind-AI-whistleblower-openDemocracy-c5826253-a50f-4c18-a664-1db1f3f08be8.jpg)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/nice-face-of-the-devil-google-whistleblower-on-ai-gaza-and-breaking-nda/) [MPs willing to rebel if Treasury doesn’t keep new miners’ pension promiseA blunder led John Healey to drop vow to release £1.2bn to former miners from last week's Budget, openDemocracy understands![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/icon/multi_solo-733c2299-e8c6-4cfc-9b9d-b90e6c8617df.png)openDemocracyEthan Shone![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/thumbnail/GettyImages-619858602--1--68309ef6-6691-4a78-be4a-c13a0770c7c4.jpg)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/mps-willing-to-rebel-if-treasury-doesnt-keep-new-miners-pension-promise/) [Ten days of elections around the world may shape future of climate debateFrom the US to Brazil, Israel and Serbia, the far right have been delivered a number of mammoth blows![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/icon/multi_solo-c538e1d6-ee2e-4781-978f-488ce503f062.png)openDemocracyPaul Rogers![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/thumbnail/GettyImages-2302155357-cbcb47d2-0fd3-415e-a9bd-63810435d4e1.jpg)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ten-days-of-elections-around-the-world-may-shape-future-of-climate-debate/) [Lula Won. The Markets Want a Third RoundBrazil’s voters rejected austerity, and its candidate fled to Florida. The markets that backed him stayed, and Lula’s finance minister has begun to give them what the ballot box refused. In Britain, the script is familiar.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/icon/multi_solo-acde427e-c532-49b1-bcee-2688da2c9568.png)openDemocracyPedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/thumbnail/GettyImages-2300547311-691937ca-bc45-4470-9bb4-078037f129b5.jpg)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/lula-won-the-markets-want-a-third-round/) [A trilogy of John Berger pieces on the centenary of his birthopenDemocracy co-founder Anthony Barnett remembers friend and contributor, John Berger![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/icon/multi_solo-1f5a08a2-33da-433d-86c4-81a0929210c2.png)openDemocracyAnthony Barnett![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/thumbnail/John-and-sellotape-f2e1568c-a1f5-4fc2-bcc9-cb5ed34f2e7a.png)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/a-trilogy-of-john-berger-pieces-on-the-centenary-of-his-birth/) [Abolish Westminster | With Adam RamsayFrom Andy Burnham’s northern devolution to the electoral rise of Reform, Britain's political consensus is coming apart at the seams. Longtime openDemocracy contributor Adam Ramsay joins Aman to discuss his book Abolish Westminster![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/icon/multi_solo-aae7828d-3355-4e1d-92f8-983eff3febeb.png)openDemocracyAman Sethi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/thumbnail/In-Solidarity-Thumbnails-d0bb7848-6ed3-4319-9a96-5710eddc251a.jpg)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/podcasts/abolish-westminster-with-adam-ramsay/) --- ## Weekly Poll How does your opinion compare to the rest of our readership? Take our new look weekly poll and find out. Have thoughts about the topic? [Send us an email](mailto:supporters@opendemocracy.net?subject=Re%3A%20Weekly%20Poll) | Will the Republican losses in the US House and Senate make the world safer or more dangerous? [Safer](https://opendemocracy.outpost.pub/plugin-api/reader-poll/4a678c8e-926e-42a1-96c2-ec7fb9d89153/0f62fe72-93f8-415c-ba02-44d05ea3adf7/email-vote?member=%%{uuid}%%&option=paweuhrh&src=ghost%5Fnewsletter&e=jevesppq51yy&ref=opendemocracy.net) [More dangerous](https://opendemocracy.outpost.pub/plugin-api/reader-poll/4a678c8e-926e-42a1-96c2-ec7fb9d89153/0f62fe72-93f8-415c-ba02-44d05ea3adf7/email-vote?member=%%{uuid}%%&option=r18sulm0&src=ghost%5Fnewsletter&e=jevesppq51yy&ref=opendemocracy.net) Click an option to vote. | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --- ## Last week's poll results ### **What are your thoughts on the budget?** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/2026/11/Poll-Results-02-11-100.jpg) --- ## Reader Comments openDemocracy receives so many carefully considered messages about our work that it seems a shame to keep them to ourselves. These comments are edited for clarity, accuracy and length, and are not a reflection of openDemocracy's editorial position. > Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has said that a factory in Shropshire making parts for tanks will provide “the firepower that will make us warfighting ready by 2030” > > Will someone please ask him ‘on a scale of one to ten how likely is it that we will be fighting tank battles on British soil in the next ten years?’. > > We have people suffering and dying now because of lack of money in health and social services, dangerous prisons, food insecurity, homelessness etc. > > There ought to be a debate about further increasing what is already in relative terms one of the world’s biggest military budgets. **Brendan O’Brien via email** --- ## What we're reading ### [**Octagon, CJ Merritt**](https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/octagon-c-j-merritt/7e9d29b0d57c0a33?ean=9780241807460&ref=opendemocracy.net) Another spy novel from me, this one exploring far right radicalism and terrorism – so of course it was up my street! Former spy Stella discovers a ritualistic killing in a Swedish forest that leads her to uncover the Sons of Odin, a far right terrorist organisation intent on wreaking havoc across Europe. Along with her hench security contact Tom, who deals with complex PTSD by climbing dangerous cliffs, she crosses countries and boundaries to foil the plot. One thing I loved about Octagon is how it combines online and offline spycraft, with Stella’s colleague Hoss digging deep into the white supremacist dark web, not an easy task for a British Asian lad. *Sian Norris - Senior Investigative Reporter* --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/2026/11/Westgate_Hotel.jpg) ## This week in history **The Newport Rising • 4 November 1839** On 4 November 1839, thousands of working-class Chartists marched into Newport, South Wales, in what would become the last mass armed uprising on mainland British soil. Demanding the democratic freedoms set out in the People’s Charter - including universal male suffrage, the secret ballot, and the right of ordinary people to sit in Parliament - the crowd was fired upon by soldiers outside the Westgate Hotel, leaving at least 22 dead. The bloodshed at Newport shattered the polite myth that British democracy was a gift from enlightened elites and remains a stark warning for our own era that democratic rights, once won through working-class sacrifice, must be continually defended. [The Great Charter of LibertiesLooking at the distance between the Westminster parliamentary system and those to whom elected representatives are ultimately accountable, the Chartists had a point – in fact, at least six points.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/icon/multi_solo-ea7d5d76-779d-4e69-8a6c-0ab2992f1cd9.png)openDemocracyMalcolm Chase![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/80/3f804bea-4b2d-4ddf-9ff0-6ec7d0afa5fa/content/images/thumbnail/oDMeta-f94360a6-c7d0-48fc-9380-be604090050f.jpg)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/great-charter-of-liberties/) ---