In this week’s issue
- Experts warn that an obscure 2003 Blair-era tax loophole is fuelling an unprecedented transfer of taxpayer wealth to Big Tech
- Why a myth regarding a 12-week limit is being weaponised across Latin America to deny lifesaving abortion care to the most vulnerable
- An Argentine village sitting atop a multi-billion-dollar lithium fortune remains frozen without basic gas or electricity, exposing the corporate greed driving the global green energy transition
- How Netanyahu's doubling down risks completely alienating Western allies and plunging the country into unprecedented international isolation
- From the archive: An investigation revealing the scale of physical, emotional and sexual violence at an Army Foundation College was back in the news this week.
- In case you missed it: How tech-giant Palantir is exploiting a generous stock-option loophole to wipe out millions in UK corporate taxes
- A pioneering, political neuroscientist discovered how black-and-white tactics used by campaigners are literally rewiring their nervous systems
A month after openDemocracy broke the news about Palantir’s tiny corporate tax bill and their multi-million pound tax shield, the company’s UK CEO Louis Mosely has finally broken his silence. How? By describing his company’s corporate tax minimisation as “a standard tax incentive under UK law”.
But how did this “standard tax incentive” come to be? Read openDemocracy tech reporter Jade Ruyu-Yan’s latest dive into Palantir’s tax affairs to find out. We’ve also included her original investigation in this issue in case you missed it.
The next election is only three years away, and we are determined to keep exposing Reform and prevent the rise of the far right. To do that, we want to recruit 500 paid subscribers by the end of 2026.
Will you be part of the movement to fight the far right, with a monthly donation today?
If you’ve followed the BBC’s investigation into sexual abuse at AFC Harrogate, do read Sian Norris’s months-long investigation from last year that detailed terrifying levels of bullying, abuse and violence, including dozens of complaints against college staff. Ultimately, as Sian says, “vulnerable young people are being let down by an institution that has a duty to protect them. Because these kids may be called soldiers. But they are children.”
Also in this issue: Lessons from Ceuta’s migration crisis, the dark side of Argentina’s Lithium boom, Islamophobia in the UK, and Israel’s worsening international isolationism.
We’ve been making steady progress to our goal of adding 500 new regular supporters by the end of the year. Regular donations help us plan for the future, embark on long-term investigations and dig into the stories that really matter. If you aren’t a supporter already, consider becoming one.
Have a great weekend.
Aman Sethi, Editor-in-Chief
Jade-Ruyu Yan
Dr Myriam Cherti
Angelina de los Santos
Diego Sánchez
Paul Rogers
Aman Sethi
Sian Norris
The Depolarization Project
Weekly Poll
Palantir UK's CEO has defended paying minimal corporation tax because Palantir's employees pay income tax. What do you think?
Reader Comments
“What kind of Society facts-tracks early release for domestic abusers?” asks Joan Smith (Guardian opinion 6/8/26). The answer is one led by a Government which has a greater commitment to a military alliance with America than it does to the welfare of its own citizens.
We spend tens of billions on nuclear weapons (“historical records and memoirs from British statesmen show that a primary motivation for developing and maintaining the hydrogen bomb in the 1950s was to prove to Washington that Britain remained a ‘first-class power’ worthy of being treated as an equal partner in global strategy, rather than a junior ally” - from gemini AI).
We have the Royal Navy sailing the world interdicting ships carrying Iranian oil or South American drug smugglers, aircraft carriers sailing the South China Sea. We have the RAF flying surveillance flights over Gaza and joining the US Navy in bombing Yemen.
At the same time, we are told we cannot afford a humane and enlightened prison system where inmates, often vulnerable people, get help to turn their lives around and make their way in the world when they are released as well as space to humanely house those who do need to be locked away for long periods.
Brendan O’Brien via email
This week in history
Hiroshima and Nagasaki • 6 and 9 August 1945
The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and on Nagasaki on 9 August. Around 110,000–210,000 people died, the majority civilians. The bombings remain deeply contested — whether militarily necessary, whether they constituted a war crime, and what they mean for international law and nuclear proliferation. They inaugurated the nuclear age and the permanent threat of annihilation that has haunted politics ever since.
From the archive this week we have a piece tracing the direct line from the streets of 1945 Japan to modern anti-nuclear campaigns, exploring how the hibakusha have partnered with humanitarian activists to demand a legally binding international ban on weapons of mass destruction.
Rebecca Johnson
What we're reading
Feminism for a World on Fire, Natasha Walter
How does the feminist movement respond to the climate crisis, the rise of the far right and its associated misogyny, war and conflict? Feminist writer, climate campaigner and founder of the charity Women for Refugee Women Natasha Walter’s new book explores how these multiple crises are impacting women’s rights. She asks necessary questions, such as how does feminism respond to the climate crisis – and how do climate campaigners bring in feminism? Her book explores how climate, conflict and gender intersect, and is packed with powerful interviews that help to unpack why the world is, in fact, on fire.
But far from being depressing, Walter inspires us to respond, telling the stories of women who are meeting the challenges we face, and offering a loud call for change that shows how feminism can save the world.
Sian Norris, senior investigations reporter
