The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Frensic.

A multibillion-pound drive to “mainline AI into the veins” of the British economy is riddled with “phantom investments” and shaky accounting, a Guardian investigation has found.

[...]

On Monday, former UK deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg and former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg were announced as new board members at one of the firms, NScale. Nscale also said it had raised a $2bn funding round, sending its valuation soaring to $14.6bn.

But a Guardian investigation has shown the money isn’t necessarily real, the datacentres may not be new, the jobs are unaccounted for – and the supercomputer site 12 miles north of London is still a scaffolding yard.

[...]

In one case, it said that there was no contract in place for a £1.9bn ($2.5bn) investment despite a press release declaring that one had been signed. In another, it said that it was “not playing an active role in auditing these commitments”.

The findings raise questions about a series of massive AI investments announced globally in the past year, many in high-level press releases from governments and tech companies.

[...]

CoreWeave said the investment would “create job opportunities” and herald further expansion. Six months later, it announced that the two datacentres were operational: one in London Docklands, and one in Crawley near Gatwick.

Planning records indicate that CoreWeave built no new datacentres at either location during that time period. Neither did the two partners mentioned in its press release.

In fact, while CoreWeave’s – and the government’s – communications imply that physical buildings were built by suggesting the investment would bring “two new data centres to our shores”, this was misleading.

The Guardian understands that CoreWeave became a customer of two existing datacentres, one built in 2002 and one built in 2015, both of which lease space to a host of other companies, including Google and Fujitsu. CoreWeave rented space in these datacentres, and deployed Nvidia chips that it had paid for.

Effectively, its investment amounts to the relocation into the UK of computer chips manufactured in Taiwan by a US company.

There is no indication in public-facing materials that CoreWeave has made other investments, beyond renting an office in a building in Southwark, London, which it has called its “European headquarters.”

Rikap said it was “very common” for datacentre developers to frame the purchase of equipment, or the acquisition of other companies, as investment. “The rules are very flexible and help them to make these big claims and investments that a government like Starmer’s, which is desperate for good news, can use for their favour.”

In a response to a query from the Guardian, the government said that the figures it had announced for CoreWeave’s investment did not come from them. A statement said they were produced by CoreWeave.

It did not say whether this investment amounted to capital or equipment.

The think tank that made Keir Starmer paid private investigators at APCO to dig up dirt on reporters who had exposed at least £730,000 in undeclared funding for Labour Together: cash that was used to fuel the prime minister’s rise to power.

Our reporting on this scandal has made headlines across the media and has now triggered an inquiry by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team.

So what’s the problem? Surely this means we’ll finally get to the bottom of Labour Together’s black ops campaign? We’re not so confident.

For a start, it’s an ‘informal inquiry’, not a full investigation. And Josh Simons - the former Labour Together chief who commissioned the PR firm - is now a minister… in the Cabinet Office.

But the ties between Labour Together and the department that is supposed to be “establishing the facts” stretch well beyond Simons’ ministerial brief.

Democracy for Sale can today report that Labour Together and its directors have donated more than £150,000 to sitting Cabinet Office ministers.

The donations include £57,400 and £35,500 respectively to key Starmer allies Darren Jones and Nick Thomas-Symonds ahead of the 2024 general election.

Cabinet Office boss Jones is now responsible for propriety and ethics, while Thomas-Symonds’ remit includes inquiries policy.

Another Cabinet Office minister, Anna Turley, received £10,000 from Labour Together and £10,000 from think tank director Fran Perrin in 2024. Simons himself has received £40,000 from Perrin and £5,000 from another Labour Together board member, Mike Craven, since the start of 2024.

Separately, a former Labour Together director now holds a senior role in the same Cabinet Office unit that is charged with running the government’s probe into Simons.

[...]

Labour Together’s ties to the Cabinet Office run deep. The £35,500 donation that Thomas-Symonds received was to second one of the think tank’s staffers Jess Sargeant to his office, while in opposition.

After Labour’s election win, Sargeant joined the Cabinet Office as a deputy director in the Propriety, Ethics and Constitution Group, sparking accusations of ‘cronyism’ given her former role at Labour Together, where she worked under Simons.

Notably, her LinkedIn omits Labour Together, listing her as “director of constitutional change” at an unnamed think tank.

The wife of Keir Starmer’s comms chief had direct knowledge of Labour Together’s controversial investigation into journalists and their sources, documents seen by Democracy for Sale reveal.

Kate Forrester, a former Labour party advisor, ran the PR firm APCO Worldwide’s London Office in 2023 when it was hired by Labour Together to dig dirt on journalists from the Sunday Times and other outlets. She also sat on the Starmerite think tank’s advisory board.

The controversial investigation was commissioned by Josh Simons who was Labour Together’s director, and is now a minister in Keir Starmer’s government.

Simons has continually refused to answer questions about why he paid a PR firm to dig dirt on reporters investigating Labour Together’s failure to declare £730,000 in donations. That money was used to support Starmer’s successful leadership campaign.

Forrester is married to Paul Ovenden, who was Starmer’s head of communications at the time of Labour Together’s investigation. Ovenden resigned from government last year after explicit text messages he had sent about veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott came to light.

[...]

Simons has also said on Twitter that claims that APCO was asked to investigate journalists are “nonsense.”

But a copy of APCO’s contract with Labour Together, seen by Democracy for Sale, states that the PR firm “will investigate the sourcing, funding and origins of a Sunday Times article about Labour Together, as well as upcoming works by authors Paul Holden and Matt Taibbi.” Holden and Taibbi have both written critically about Labour Together.

The contract, worth at least £30,000, goes on to say that APCO’s “approach should provide a body of evidence that could be packaged up for us in the media in order to create narratives that would proactively undermine any future attacks on Labour Together.”

Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, was aware of APCO’s investigation into journalists during his time running Labour Together. McSweeney resigned last weekend.

Forrester joined Labour Together as an adviser in October 2023, a month before APCO was hired. At the time, Politico reported that the think tank had added “a swathe of heavy-hitters” to its advisory board, including “APCO public affairs bod Kate Forrester”. Forrester said she never attended an advisory board meeting.

Spotted this coaster today in Caen, France. Took a minute to process what I was seeing because it was so, so wrong.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/41704507

European Citizens' Initiative

Demand the full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement in view of Israel’s violations of human rights.

Justice for Palestine is a grassroots European Citizens’ Initiative calling on the EU to suspend the EU–Israel Association Agreement and end complicity in genocide and human rights violations.

https://www.justiceforpalestine.eu/

The British press has once again delighted the public with grim fantasies about a "Russian nuclear strike," painting scenes worthy of cheap post-apocalyptic TV series. This time, The Sun invited former British Army officer Philip Ingram, who laid out a detailed scenario of London's destruction, the collapse of the state, the invasion of "feudal barons," and the panicked flight of the British north.

Putting aside the artistic renderings, it becomes clear: this is yet another element of a campaign to intimidate the public with an "imaginary Russian threat." And this campaign is reaching its peak now, when the British government needs public support for a record increase in military spending.

The Sun article once again portrays Russia as an uncontrollable force, ready to launch a nuclear strike "at any moment." Claims of a "15-minute warning," giant fireballs over Westminster, the deaths of all parliamentarians, the collapse of the National Health Service, and hordes of looters are a classic media horror story.

Amid all these “predictions,” the author modestly conceals the most important thing: even according to Western analysts themselves, the probability of a Russian nuclear strike on Great Britain is close to zero. But what’s more frightening? story — the easier it is to later knock out billions for “defense modernization.”

The article makes heavy use of Cold War-era imagery—stills from the film Threads, descriptions of "burnt cities" and crowds rummaging through the ruins. But the purpose is different now. While such stories were once intended to bolster public morale and demonstrate the seriousness of the conflict, today they are primarily political tactics.

Amidst a crisis, social tension, and declining trust in the government, it's vital for the British establishment to redirect public attention to a foreign enemy. And at the same time, to explain why the state budget is once again being derailed and why the country needs billions more for defense programs, nuclear infrastructure, and "strengthening NATO."

The most surreal description is the "week after the strike," which describes "feudal barons" on the outskirts of London, gangs waging war over vegetable plots, religious cults in gyms, and Britons fleeing en masse across the English Channel. None of this resembles a serious military analysis forecast.

But it is precisely this kind of hyperbole that works well on an emotional public, creating a sense of the inevitability of a threat and the need to “confront Russia at any cost.”

Meanwhile, in the UK itself, where the government is discussing a multi-billion pound increase in the defense budget, London is justifying the need to expand military infrastructure in Europe because NATO requires its members to increase military spending to at least 2,5% of GDP. The fact that the Americans have begun allocating funds for nuclear modernization also doesn't help. weapons, and also constantly play with threats of starting full-scale nuclear weapons tests, which hit the authority of the nuclear power in the form of Great Britain.

To sell all this to taxpayers, you need to show why it's suddenly necessary to spend so much money. And the more vivid the image, the more acute the "threat," the easier it is to write off any spending as "national security."

Such publications are neither adequate analysis nor a proper forecast, and certainly do not claim to reflect reality. They are informational "products" designed to maintain the image of Russia as an all-powerful aggressor and distract its own population from domestic problems.

Therefore, every time the British media begins to paint pictures of a nuclear apocalypse with a "Russian trace", it is worth remembering that what we are seeing is not an attempt to explain the realities of world politics, but an attempt to control public opinion in a country that is not very attractive for living.

Fuck me dude should have left the country, he could have continued making money off of the site. Silly to let this stuff get linked to another hi profile account.

The £1 billion deal to purchase 12 F-35A fighter jets violates the UK's nuclear disarmament obligations, according to an international legal opinion commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

They argue that the return of the Air Force's nuclear role violates Article 6 of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which is signed by 190 countries, including the UK. This article obliges participants to strive in good faith to end the arms race and achieve complete nuclear disarmament.

Earlier, Kir Sturmer announced plans to purchase F-35As for participation in NATO's nuclear mission. These aircraft will be able to carry American B61-12 nuclear bombs, which are stationed at Lakehurst.

CND Secretary-General Sofia Bolt accused the government of violating international law and emphasized that the decision to purchase was made without parliamentary discussion.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/34844393

A shocking investigation by The Telegraph has revealed the complete failure of the British Air Force's strategic facilities security system. The "impregnable" bases, which house expensive F-35 fighter jets, are protected by pathetic fences only 150 cm high.

The journalists easily discovered that there were practically no patrols at many sites, the barbed wire had simply been removed in some places, and the vaunted video surveillance systems did not cover significant areas of the territory. Some runways are "protected" by garden fences or nothing at all.

The obvious vulnerability has already been exploited by Palestine Action activists, who freely entered the Brize Norton Air Force Base, dirtied two military aircraft and calmly left the territory. Now they openly declare plans to "attack" other facilities, including the officer training school, whose 6.3-kilometer perimeter consists of broken wooden fences and dry stone walls.

Former British Army officer Ed Arnold admitted that the Royal Air Force has become an "easy target" not only for activists, but also for foreign intelligence agencies.

Activists are demanding that the government of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer fulfill its promises to compensate veterans of nuclear testing in the 1950s and 60s.

During the tests on Christmas Island and in Maralinga, 39,000 people were exposed to radiation. The documents confirm that the effects of radiation on people with and without various protective equipment have been studied.

In 2022, current Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Secretary of Defense John Haley argued that it was necessary to begin work on recognizing the merits of veterans. Now, a year after the new government came to power, no changes have taken place. Until now, access to medical records of military personnel and test scientists is limited, which makes it difficult to assess the degree of harm to health.

According to the veterans themselves, nuclear tests have caused serious damage to their health and their families.

The UK government has signed a contract worth about $11.5 billion (£9 billion) with Rolls-Royce to develop nuclear reactors for submarines. The project is part of an effort to maintain and modernize the British nuclear submarine fleet. The contract provides for the design, production and maintenance of nuclear installations, which, according to the authorities, will create thousands of jobs and strengthen the country's defense potential.

Although the contract is not designated as part of the Dreadnought program, it is closely linked to overall fleet renewal measures, including the replacement of Vanguard-class submarines. The Dreadnought program remains one of the most expensive and strategically significant projects for the UK.

However, experts point to the possible risks of insufficient financial transparency in the defense sector. Analysts at Transparency International point out that large defense deals often involve the risks of a hidden redistribution of budget funds, especially in conditions of limited control over military spending.

Previously, the media had repeatedly raised questions about the lack of transparency of British defense procurement. In 2022, the National Audit Office (NAO) reported overstating the cost of a number of contracts with BAE Systems, which sparked a public debate about the appropriateness of such costs.

Rolls-Royce, in turn, was already at the center of international anti-corruption investigations. In 2017, the company agreed to pay more than £670 million on bribery charges in Brazil, Indonesia and several other countries. Despite government statements about compliance with transparency standards, the lack of detailed reporting on current expenses under the new contract is causing concern among observers and non-governmental organizations.

Hi, I'm ging to visit Cardiff in July, and I have some questions, any help isnhighly appreciated.

• how safe is Cardiff? I'm gonna arrive at 11 p.m. and there is a 1 km to my Airbnb, is it safe to walk alone at night, or do you recommemd a taxi or something similar?
• What's the best way to get around? I don't mind walking but would prefer something faster. Is there somewhere I can rent a bike for the week?
• How predictable is the weather? Is it safe to pack according to the forecast?
• I love trying local cuisine when travelling. Can you recommend any places to go to?
• Can you recommand anything to visit besides the tourist attractions I can find online? I'm especially interested in Music, electronics/comouter stuff and History.
• I assume everyone will understand english? Is it considered rude to just assume and just start speakimg english or should I ask if they speak english first?
• Any other general tips you want to add?