In Solidarity - by openDemocracy

Governments hand out billions in lucrative contracts to tech corporations to build surveillance systems, track migrants, and process public health data. Yet those same companies use every legal loophole available to avoid paying tax on their profits.In this episode of In Solidarity, openDemocracy editor Aman Sethi and tech reporter Jade-Ruyu Yan sit down with Jason Ward, principal analyst at the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR), to analyze Palantir’s global tax practices.Palantir supplies technology to US immigration enforcement, the Israeli military, and the UK’s NHS. Despite reporting 55% profit margins and over $1.6 billion in net income, Palantir maintains an effective global tax rate of just 1.4% and pays zero federal income tax in the United States.Chapter Timestamps00:00:00 - Introduction & What is Palantir?00:03:25 - Palantir in the UK: NHS Contracts & Low Tax Bills00:04:37 - Why Investigate Palantir's Tax Practices?00:05:37 - Peter Thiel, JD Vance, and Silicon Valley Ideology00:07:02 - The 1.4% Effective Tax Rate: How Palantir Dodges Taxes00:10:47 - Explaining the Stock-Based Compensation Loophole00:15:15 - Corporate Taxes, Democracy, and Inequality00:18:48 - Who Works for Palantir? Inside Employee Motivations00:20:21 - The France Exception: Why Worker Power Matters for Tax00:23:14 - Australia’s Tax Transparency Revolution00:26:32 - Debunking Corporate Excuses & Pushing for ReformCredits:Presented by Aman SethiProduced by Harry Beney

Nine months after the US abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a highly unusual oil deal has surfaced. The US claims to have struck an agreement to take control of about a fifth of Venezuela's oil reserves. But this isn't a standard international trade agreement; it’s structured through a Barbados-based private company owned by a controversial businessman, with the US Department of Defense taking a 35% stake.In this episode, we sit down with Francisco Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist and author of The Collapse of Venezuela: Scorched-Earth Politics and Economic Decline. Rodríguez dismantles the mechanics of this unprecedented $100 billion deal, explaining why major oil companies are nowhere to be found and why Venezuela is currently shipping 40,000 barrels of oil to the US at cost.Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction00:03:00 - The Barbados Company and the Missing $100 Billion00:05:00 - Replenishing the US Strategic Reserve at Venezuela's Expense00:07:00 - Bypassing Venezuelan Law and the National Assembly00:09:00 - Comparisons to the 1996 Russian Privatization00:13:00 - Hugo Chávez and the Origins of Economic Collapse00:18:00 - The Devastating Impact of US Sanctions00:22:00 - The Opposition’s "Faustian Bargain" with Washington00:25:00 - "Regime Compliance" and the Future of US InterventionCredits:Presented by Aman SethiProduced by Harry Beney

Is Reform fascist, far-right or merely right wing? And do we really need to get into this?Our guest on this episode, thinks we should: Daniel Trilling is a journalist, a long-time openDemocracy contributor, and the author of a new Book: If We Tolerate This: How the British Establishment Made the Far Right Respectable.Daniel has spent decades covering the wild west of right-wing politics in England— from the fascists to the conservatives. And his point, which we dig into over the length of this episode, is we need to correctly diagnose what Reform is, and what they are tapping into, before we decide what to do about it.I found this conversation particularly thought provoking for two reasons: Whenever we cover Reform on openDemocracy (and we go at them very hard), we often get readers writing in saying, “I support Reform but I’m not racist”; On the other hand, I worry — to borrow from the title of Daniel’s book, if we are making a dangerous group respectable.So yes, we need to get into it, and Daniel is just the person to do this with. Buy Daniel's book: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/8711/9781037411571Subscribe to openDemocracy: opendemocracy.net00:00 Introduction01:05 The Collapse of the UK's Two-Party System02:18 The First-Past-The-Post Lottery03:07 What is the "British Establishment"?04:19 The Media Elite & Private School Pipelines05:32 The "Punitive State": Working Class vs. The State07:37 The Nigel Farage Playbook10:48 The False Promise of "Fixing the Country"13:30 "Anti-Nationals" & The Right-Wing Identity Crisis16:32 Scottish Nationalism vs. Englishness18:23 The Identity Void of Post-Empire Britain21:40 How to Actually Defeat Reform UK & The Far-Right

The climate crisis is changing the way nations think about food, energy, resources, war and peace. Melting ice caps are opening up new trade routes fought over by the world's great powers, conflicts are waged over food and mineral resources, shifting climates are fuelling migration – and Donald Trump says it's all just a scam.Join Arthur Snell as he discusses his new book Elemental: the new geography of climate change and how we survive it. Spanning conflict in the Sahel, Russia's war in Ukraine, the US coveting Greenland, NEOM in Saudi Arabia, and China's energy push, Snell explores how the climate crisis is now in every part of our politics. But while there is much to concern us here, there's hope too. The world faces various futures, and it can adapt and respond to the realities of a changing climate.📕 Buy Elemental: The New Geography of Climate Change and How We Survive ithttps://uk.bookshop.org/a/8711/9781035412945👉 Stay informed. Sign up for the openDemocracy newsletter: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/newsletters/ ✊ Support our work. In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. We rely on listeners like you to keep our independent journalism free. Donate today: https://www.openDemocracy.net/donate/Chapters: 00:00 Introduction01:20 The Petro-State Panic: Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the End of Oil03:32 The Sahel Crisis: Climate Migration and Fragile States08:24 Uranium & Mercenaries: Russia vs. France in Africa10:25 The Arctic: Melting Ice, Shipping Routes, and Donald Trump16:21 Ukraine: Why Putin is Weaponizing Food and Farmland21:35 China’s Monopoly & Russia's Future as an "Economic Colony"28:18 The Surprising Winners: Morocco, Interconnectors, and Climate Hope32:41 OutroCredits: Presented by Sian NorrisAudio engineering by James BattershillTheme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela

"My ultimate vision... was to achieve by means of AI and technology, what Jeremy Bentham tried to do with his panopticon." — UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.When the state openly admits it wants its eyes on you at all times, how do citizens fight back?In this episode of In Solidarity, Matthew Linares sits down with Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group. We cut through the Silicon Valley PR to expose the terrifying reality of the modern surveillance state. From the aggressive rollout of facial recognition and predictive policing to the "revolving door" between Big Tech lobbyists and policymakers, we explore how our democratic infrastructure is being hollowed out for corporate profit.This isn't just a warning - it's an escape plan. Jim breaks down the illusion of corporate regulation, the realities of "enshittification," and the actionable steps you can take to reclaim your digital sovereignty today.Get involved offline. Find an Open Rights Group meetup near you: https://www.openrightsgroup.org/get-involved/👉 Stay informed. Sign up for the openDemocracy newsletter: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/newsletters/ ✊ Support our work. In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. We rely on listeners like you to keep our independent journalism free. Donate today: https://www.openDemocracy.net/donate/Chapters:00:00:00 - Introduction00:01:27 - The AI Panopticon00:04:18 - The Lobbyist Loop & The “Rip-Off”00:10:26 - “Enshittification” & The Illusion of Choice00:14:48 - Why relying on tech regulators is a “mug’s game”00:18:51 - Escaping the Matrix: Interoperability, analog meetups, and fighting backCredits: Presented by Matthew LinaresAudio engineering by James BattershillTheme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela

As the US-Israeli war on Iran continues to escalate, the effects of the conflict are spiralling outwards across a world already whiplashed by cross-border violence, global tariffs, and the unravelling of regional alliances.There is much that we do not know: How will spiking energy prices affect developing economies in Asia and Africa? What are the long term impacts of the destabilisation of the Gulf, a region that has long served as a magnet for labour and capital from around the world? What does the conflict in Iran reveal about the latest chapter in the relationship between international finance capital and nation states?To talk through these questions, I interviewed analyst and columnist Mihir Sharma. Sharma is a principal research fellow at IPPR, and has been a Bloomberg Opinion columnist on global economics and politics for over a decade.