Welcome to Rip-Off Britain.

A country remade by privatisation.

Our latest project — Who Owns Britain? — explores how a radical experiment transformed our society and shapes your life.

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Sexta-feira terminando e a gente cantando: "Chegou o fim de semana, todo mundo vai sair. Só não vai Jair, só não vai Jair..."

A joyful day for Brazilian democracy: our Supreme Court has formed a majority to convict Bolsonaro and 7 defendants for criminal organisation and attempted coup!

If you end up watching, look forward to chatting about it! Unfortunately, like other fictional dystopian futures, some aspects of the series feel like real possibilities the way the world is spinning…

Definitely recommend it!

Have you watched The Expanse?

¿Qué rol podría jugar la inteligencia artificial en la lucha contra la violencia de género? RIAF me invitó a compartir nuevo proyecto de #DatosContraFeminicidio y DISCO Lab, que explora la cobertura periodística de casos de feminicidio y el desarrollo de IA. ¡Sumate!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

A new handbook on Comparative Political Economy is out! Ben Schneider and I have a chapter on capitalism in Latin America, tracing lineages of thinking on its development and how they speak to each other. We touch on VofC, GMs, dependency thinking, financialization. tinyurl.com/4arb2wt4

Also incredibly gendered

Reading Karen Hao's Empire of AI, so much to unpack in this directive OpenAI crafted to configure how GPT-4o should respond to users: "act like a human", "be warm", be "full of charm". Strong "your outtie is..." Severance vibes

Thank you, Rahul! So proud to work with you all!

Amazing to celebrate 5 years of Data Against Feminicide with so many inspirational peers last week👏🏽 Read the amazing report from @icruxen.bsky.social and Alessandra for reflections on the participatory AI work I've been collaborating on. qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/bitstr...

Check out the newly launched D-Econ padlet for resources related to these topics.
d-econ.org/d-econ-padlet/

Fascinating piece in the FT today on the question of financing AI infrastructure at scale — makes clear we can’t think about AI development without thinking about financialization

‪
@justwaterfutures.bsky.social. Our seminars are now live!
@gemmagasseau.bsky.social, @blue-community.net, @icruxen.bsky.social, @rachel-woods.bsky.social etc.

Check out: What´s Public about Public Water? www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjvC...

The brilliant Farwa Sial on the growing role of private equity in the global South, writing for the Developing Economics blog:

developingeconomics.org/2025/07/23/p...

Replacing regulator without addressing ownership issues — in Brazil we’d call this “tapar o sol com uma peneira” or attempting to block the sun with a sieve:
on.ft.com/4o0DB4G “Water regulator Ofwat to be abolished after official review”

We're celebrating 5y of the
#DataAgainstFeminicide project. Join us to reflect on the project's results and insights (with new report out!), and to launch the Swahili version of our tools, co-designed with Femicide Count Kenya!
Register here: mit.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Utility agreements with data centres should be subject to broader public consultation and debate. The recipe here is an old one: socialize costs while private actors pocket the benefits. www.ft.com/content/c5f2...

Absolutely gutted for Dimitrov, was playing a beautiful match. One of the saddest moments I’ve seen in tennis

Se pá tá na hora de começar a chamar o Congresso brasileiro de #CongressoTioPatinhas

#CongressoInimigodoPovo

New on the CLaSP blog: Looking at platform workers in Argentina, Sofia Negri asks how we can build a future of work that transforms the salaried relationship to reconcile autonomy with social protection

www.claspblog.org/blogposts/ac...

Please read this article in full. Every aspect of this Palantir, OpenAI & Meta millionaire (self-)appointment to the Army Reserves should raise alarms about escalating tech industry capture of defence. While none of them will risk their lives, they are explicitly tasked with making war more lethal.

Wild how the Fed chair saying that *entire regions of the United States* won’t be able to get a mortgage in the next decade barely registered as a news event