How big tech is creating its own friendly media bubble to ‘win the narrative battle online’

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At a time when distrust of big tech is high, Silicon Valley is embracing an alternative ecosystem where every CEO is a star

A montage of Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, and waving US flags set to a remix of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck blasts out as the intro for the tech billionaire’s interview with Sourcery, a YouTube show presented by the digital finance platform Brex. Over the course of a friendly walk through the company offices, Karp fields no questions about Palantir’s controversial ties to ICE but instead extolls the company’s virtues, brandishes a sword and discusses how he exhumed the remains of his childhood dog Rosita to rebury them near his current home.

“That’s really sweet,” host Molly O’Shea tells Karp.

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Zelenskyy faces ‘mini-revolution’ as Yermak’s fall reshapes Ukraine’s wartime power system

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Exit of Zelenskyy’s most powerful aide could also have impact on Kyiv’s negotiating position in talks over ending war

Ukraine’s political system is bracing for a “mini-revolution” as the county’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is forced to adapt to life without his closest adviser, chief enforcer and most loyal associate, Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday after his apartment was searched as part of a widening anti-corruption probe.

Yermak’s resignation could have tremendous consequences for domestic governance, as well as for Ukraine’s negotiating position in talks over ending the war with Russia, where he had served as the head of Ukraine’s delegation to peace talks with the White House.

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Russian attack on Kyiv cuts power to half of city and leaves two dead

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Missile and drone attacks come amid Moscow’s campaign to break Ukrainian civil resistance by attacking energy grid

Two people were killed and 37 were injured by a Russian drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital that cut power to the western half of the city, leaving at least 500,000 residents without electricity.

Nearly 600 drones and 36 rockets were fired into the country in an attack that its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said highlighted Ukraine’s need for western help with air defence, as well as other financial and political support.

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Israel has ‘de facto state policy’ of organised torture, says UN report

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Committee highlights allegations including dog attacks and sexual violence, raising concern about impunity for war crimes

Israel has “a de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture”, according to a UN report covering the past two years, which also raised concerns about the impunity of Israeli security forces for war crimes.

The UN committee on torture expressed “deep concern over allegations of repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, waterboarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence”.

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Impasse over EHRC single-sex spaces guidance ‘distracting from other issues’

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Staff at human rights body said to be ‘desperate for regime change’ over inertia after court’s legal definition of a woman

The ongoing impasse over guidance from the UK’s human rights watchdog on access to single-sex spaces is distracting from other pressing issues, including the rise of the far right, insiders have told the Guardian.

Some members of staff at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are described as “desperate for regime change” ahead of the new chair, Mary-Ann Stephenson, taking up her post in December.

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‘An oil spill in solid form’: Bio-bead disaster devastates beloved English coast – CNN

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  1. ‘An oil spill in solid form’: Bio-bead disaster devastates beloved English coast  CNN
  2. Southern Water uses new devices to speed up beach pellet removal  BBC
  3. Plastic ‘bio-beads’ from sewage plants are polluting the oceans and spreading superbugs – but there are alternatives  The Conversation
  4. Volunteer’s dismay over lack of help to clean beach littered with plastic pellets  Kent Online
  5. UK water firm says 'highly likely' behind plastic pellet pollution incident  Bloomer Advance Newspaper
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Rage rooms: can smashing stuff up really help to relieve anger and stress?

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Venues promoting destruction as stress relief are appearing around the UK but experts – and our correspondent – are unsure

If you find it hard to count to 10 when anger bubbles up, a new trend offers a more hands-on approach. Rage rooms are cropping up across the UK, allowing punters to smash seven bells out of old TVs, plates and furniture.

Such pay-to-destroy ventures are thought to have originated in Japan in 2008, but have since gone global. In the UK alone venues can be found in locations from Birmingham to Brighton, with many promoting destruction as a stress-relieving experience.

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They tried to overturn the 2020 US election. Now, they hold power in Trump’s Washington

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Those who tried to overturn the 2020 election now occupy key federal roles, shaping rules and sowing doubt for 2026

The people who tried to overturn the 2020 election have more power than ever – and they plan to use it.

Bolstered by the president, they have prominent roles in key parts of the federal government. Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer who helped advance Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election in 2020, now leads the civil rights division of the justice department. An election denier, Heather Honey, now serves as the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the department of homeland security. Kurt Olsen, an attorney involved in the “stop the steal” movement, is now a special government employee investigating the 2020 election.

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