DataLab | Statbel

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A UK Labour Minister Just Resigned Over a Secret Plot to Silence Journalists Using a Spy Agency

"A UK Labour Minister Just Resigned Over a Secret Plot to Silence Journalists Using a Spy Agency
Simons was accused of running a thinktank dedicated to fighting "disinformation," then used a government intelligence body to spread it."

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The dangerous martyrdom of Khamenei

"With the Ayatollah’s death as powerful as the killing of the Pope during Easter, Khamenei was elevated overnight to the status of Imam-e Shahid — the “martyred saint.” That symbolism matters far more than many Western strategists appear to understand. In Shiite political theology, martyrdom is not loss but transfiguration. It converts political defeat into moral victory and transforms fallen leaders into sources of enduring mobilization. The assassination has therefore not merely removed a leader; it has mythologized him among his followers. And myth, in revolutionary regimes, is a fount of power and renewal. 

Khamenei’s assassination has already proved a mobilizing force for his millions of followers. Unmoored from the cultural and religious intricacies of the Middle East, the US and Israel wagered that killing the Supreme Leader would expose the fragility of the regime in Tehran and weaken political resolve across the Islamic Republic, causing defections and perhaps even a popular domestic uprising. Instead, his death has rallied the regime’s active supporters — perhaps a quarter of Iran’s 93 million people — while fomenting strong anti-American sentiment and open revolt among Shi’a from Bahrain and Iraq to Pakistan and Kashmir. "

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Retrospect & prospect: a post-progressive developmental evolutionary psychopathology | Theory and Society | Springer Nature Link

"To restore credibility, I argue that a post progressive developmental evolutionary psychopathology is necessary. It should be grounded in a renewed commitment to the classical biopsychosocial model, openness to genetically and biologically informed research designs, rejection of activism driven approaches to “destigmatization,” and engagement with pluralistic philosophical and sociobiological perspectives on psychiatric constructs. Only by returning to its foundational scientific ethos can the field regain its scientific value while contributing meaningfully to human well-being."

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Austerity, capitalism, and the death of economics – The Oxford Student

"Mattei argues that the shift towards economics as applied mathematics, almost a sibling of the natural sciences, is not an ‘evolution’ of the discipline. The expulsion of history from economics was no accident, because history reveals what mathematics hides: the assumptions.

The focus of neoclassical economics on models instead of history was born at a time many were heavily contesting capitalism (the early 20th century), and successfully finding alternatives. By removing history and depoliticising economics (which since then has no longer been called political economy), capitalism and the austerity measures that support it are frozen and made unchangeable. 

History allows us to call out this ‘purity’, and prod at the assumptions underpinning so much of modern economic theory. Furthermore, an economist that takes a step back from their models and considers the context in which they work will be a better economist. This is because economists are not disinterested observers, immune to political and social questions. Mattei acknowledged this head-on in her talk: “I do not live above the economy, merely observing it. Rather, like all citizens, I live within it.”

Economics has in recent years restrained our sense of possibility. Any proposition, even by serious academic heterodox economists, is dismissed as being unfeasible or unrealistic. However, there are no ‘eternal truths in economics’. Those that appear to be so, enforced by political power, snobbery, and high-brow ‘intellectualism’, can be debunked.

Here is my conviction: economics can be a force for change. Not in City of London skyscrapers or Whitehall offices, but through a new, popular economics that actually addresses the issues we face day-to-day. In Oxford, a group of students is trying to enact this new way of thinking about economics, centering history and recognising the inherent political nature of economic  knowledge.

Rethinking Economics Oxford (REO) relaunched this term, with Clara Mattei being their first speaker."

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BKC Roadmap

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The Epstein Next Door | Compact

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"We framed the history of civilization in terms of successive collapsing “identity regimes” (sincerity/roles, authenticity/inner self, and today’s profile-based identities) in which identity destabilizes as its technologies succeed, and contrasted this with the principle of Wu Wei and the 21st Century’s demand for ongoing transformation."

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Two Machine Civilisations - by Chor Pharn

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TDF 2026, an honest note on regeneration, health and progress.

"Over the coming year, we are fundraising the next trenches of capital that will unlock TDF becoming a thriving economy. We are working through some final requested engineering challenges posed by the municipality, but overall we are largely ready to complete our build over the next year.

We’ve devised the raise in 4 stages:

Consolidate all the assets under the company. When I initially found this land, I had the privilege to take the risk and acquire the buildings on my own. This enabled us to have the previous 5 years of grassroots, unbounded creative playground. When our first shareholders joined the initial company (that later was converted into tokens) - they brought only €20k, while I provided an additional €30k to set up our company’s initial minimum €50k share capital. Liquidity was tight, so the company was never able to prioritise repaying me for the initial investment. Instead we spent incoming resources to build real assets. Now that we are looking at working with larger capital providers such as banks etc, it is time to finally execute the option to buy the company holds. I’ll personally be providing an additional loan to the company to facilitate the transfer of the asset - but the rest must come from community funding.

The late storms showed our roofs were not quite waterproof enough to prevent our interiors from taking damage. At the same time, our partners at Kinterra have helped us secure a deal for solar panels at cost. So we are turning this into a win-win-win opportunity: we intend to cover all roofs with solar, creating an additional water proofing layer, while creating enough energy capacity to feed our consumption for the next decades, with enough to spare to generate €7k+ in annual energy revenue from selling to a future micro-grid we are planning in Abela.

Then it’s time to build the real business potential. Starting with food, because for a rather reasonable amount of capital we can build a licensed 30 seat restaurant that will have a secured internal demand, a steady supply of fresh veggies and mushrooms to transform and export as delicious farm to table meals that will drive a solid revenue line for TDF. But it doesn’t end there. By moving the kitchen, we free up spaces for our 4 artists studios, and our music studio already has a taker with James who’s hosting Harmonia soon, and who will bring his studio equipment to create a live-in recording studio on the ground.

Finally, as the wrapping piece that we’ve been waiting for so long, comes the core revenue driver for TDF -the suites. It’s not a small investment to build hospitality grade units fitting all the requirements. But this piece will also be co-financed either by EU grants or by banks (both in progress)."

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