In Solidarity - by openDemocracy

As the fifth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches, the reality on the ground in Ukraine is fundamentally shifting. Drones dominate the skies, the safety perimeter for civilians is collapsing, and international support hangs in the balance following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

In this episode of In Solidarity, openDemocracy senior investigative reporter Sian Norris speaks about her fifth reporting trip to the frontlines of Kharkiv and the streets of Kyiv. Sian shares harrowing on-the-ground details, explaining how drone technology is drastically expanding the "killzone" for medical evacuations and why the capital is now under constant ballistic bombardment as Patriot missile supplies dry up.

The conversation also explores how Russia is weaponizing the looming winter freeze against the civilian population, and how the Kremlin's hybrid warfare strategy is spreading beyond Ukraine's borders—funding sabotage in the UK and stoking anti-migrant riots across Europe.

What we discuss in this episode:

• The New Drone Reality: How FPV drones have turned previously accessible suburbs like Saltivka into active threat zones, and why authorities have been forced to build brightly-coloured primary schools completely underground.
• The Missing Patriot Missiles: Why Kyiv is facing a barrage of ballistic missiles, and how the shifting foreign policy of the Trump administration has left the city more vulnerable to airborne attacks.
• Weaponizing Winter: A look at Russia's systematic attacks on energy infrastructure, targeting substations 94 times in a single week in a calculated attempt to break civilian morale ahead of the winter freeze.
• Life in the Crosshairs: The extraordinary resilience of ordinary Ukrainians, from mothers giving birth in frontline hospitals to civilians carrying on with Halloween celebrations while air defenses explode overhead.
• The Shadow War in the UK: How Russian operatives are enacting a campaign of sabotage and disinformation in Britain, including funding arson attacks and amplifying the rhetoric of far-right influencers like Tommy Robinson to fracture Western solidarity.
• The Geopolitical Shockwave: Why many Ukrainians view Donald Trump with outright horror, and how his subservience to Putin and echoing of Kremlin disinformation is upending the global order.

In this episode, longtime openDemocracy contributor Adam Ramsay discusses his book Abolish Westminster, arguing that “Westminster” is a metonym for Britain’s whole constitutional order parliament, Whitehall, the judiciary, the monarchy, the Lords, and the union and that it was built to run an empire rather than democratically govern today’s UK. Drawing on Scotland’s experience, he says progressive politics are repeatedly thwarted by an English electoral pattern that has long delivered Conservative rule, despite similar issue preferences across nations; devolution has mitigated harms in Scotland, including lower child poverty and a less punitive benefits system. Ramsay contends devolution is temporary and easily overridden, critiques Britain’s unresolved post-imperial identity and racialized Englishness, and reads Reform’s rise as nostalgia for an imagined pre-decline state.

He proposes breaking up the UK so its nations can pursue democratic renewal, with England forced into constitutional reform.

In this episode Sian Norris speaks with The Guardian’s Luke Harding about his book Betrayal: Putin, Trump and the New Age of Conquest (https://uk.bookshop.org/a/8711/9781783353378), covering Harding’s 2007–2011 Moscow posting, FSB harassment and his expulsion while investigating Litvinenko and Putin’s wealth.

Luke argues Putin’s worldview is neo-imperial and explains how Western leaders misread Russia before the February 2022 full-scale invasion. He describes Biden’s fear of nuclear escalation and slow delivery of weapons, and says some Ukrainians hoped Trump might end the war, but Harding believes Trump behaves like a Russian asset, citing deference to Putin, policy shifts, cuts to Ukraine aid, and possible kompromat.

We also explore Kremlin ties to the British right, Brexit-era influence, Nigel Farage’s Russia Today appearances, and the Nathan Gill bribery case, before ending on Ukraine’s resilience, drone innovation, and a strategy of degrading Russia’s war economy.

00:00 Introduction

01:13 Expelled From Moscow

03:34 FSB Harassment Campaign

07:05 Warnings Before Invasion

10:17 Putin Mythology Ukraine

13:56 Biden Zelensky Tensions

17:51 Alaska Summit Deference

20:03 Why Trump Aligns Russia

23:42 Oval Office Ambush

26:15 Britain Right Russia Links

29:27 Nathan Gill Bribery Case

35:12 Far Right Influence Network

37:18 New Age Of Conquest

40:05 Drone Warfare Template

40:54 Ukraine Resilience Winter

43:49 Ukraine Innovation Victory

Presented by Sian Norris

Produced by harry Beney

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do progressive movements defeat the far right without adopting their doom-laden narrative?

In this episode of In Solidarity, Aman is joined by fellow openDemocracy investigative journalists Sian Norris and Ethan Shone to break down the recent Labour conference and how it fits into the rapidly changing political landscape in the UK.

From repealing Thatcher-era bans on public water ownership to tackling the decades-long crisis in social care, does Burnham’s vision offer genuine structural reform or merely "empty calories" wrapped in charismatic delivery?

Credits:

Presented by Aman Sethi

Produced by Harry Beney

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Timestamps

00:00:00 - Introduction & What is Palantir?

00:03:25 - Palantir in the UK: NHS Contracts & Low Tax Bills

00:04:37 - Why Investigate Palantir's Tax Practices?

00:05:37 - Peter Thiel, JD Vance, and Silicon Valley Ideology

00:07:02 - The 1.4% Effective Tax Rate: How Palantir Dodges Taxes

00:10:47 - Explaining the Stock-Based Compensation Loophole

00:15:15 - Corporate Taxes, Democracy, and Inequality

00:18:48 - Who Works for Palantir? Inside Employee Motivations

00:20:21 - The France Exception: Why Worker Power Matters for Tax

00:23:14 - Australia’s Tax Transparency Revolution

00:26:32 - Debunking Corporate Excuses & Pushing for Reform

Credits:

Presented by Aman Sethi

Produced by Harry Beney

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 - Introduction

00:03:00 - The Barbados Company and the Missing $100 Billion

00:05:00 - Replenishing the US Strategic Reserve at Venezuela's Expense

00:07:00 - Bypassing Venezuelan Law and the National Assembly

00:09:00 - Comparisons to the 1996 Russian Privatization

00:13:00 - Hugo Chávez and the Origins of Economic Collapse

00:18:00 - The Devastating Impact of US Sanctions

00:22:00 - The Opposition’s "Faustian Bargain" with Washington

00:25:00 - "Regime Compliance" and the Future of US Intervention

Credits:

Presented by Aman Sethi

Produced by Harry Beney

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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/8711/9781037411571

Subscribe to openDemocracy: opendemocracy.net

00:00 Introduction

01:05 The Collapse of the UK's Two-Party System

02:18 The First-Past-The-Post Lottery

03:07 What is the "British Establishment"?

04:19 The Media Elite & Private School Pipelines

05:32 The "Punitive State": Working Class vs. The State

07:37 The Nigel Farage Playbook

10:48 The False Promise of "Fixing the Country"

13:30 "Anti-Nationals" & The Right-Wing Identity Crisis

16:32 Scottish Nationalism vs. Englishness

18:23 The Identity Void of Post-Empire Britain

21:40 How to Actually Defeat Reform UK & The Far-Right

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 it

https://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 Introduction

01:20 The Petro-State Panic: Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the End of Oil

03:32 The Sahel Crisis: Climate Migration and Fragile States

08:24 Uranium & Mercenaries: Russia vs. France in Africa

10:25 The Arctic: Melting Ice, Shipping Routes, and Donald Trump

16:21 Ukraine: Why Putin is Weaponizing Food and Farmland

21:35 China’s Monopoly & Russia's Future as an "Economic Colony"

28:18 The Surprising Winners: Morocco, Interconnectors, and Climate Hope

32:41 Outro

Credits: Presented by Sian Norris

Audio engineering by James Battershill

Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"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 - Introduction

00:01:27 - The AI Panopticon

00:04:18 - The Lobbyist Loop & The “Rip-Off”

00:10:26 - “Enshittification” & The Illusion of Choice

00:14:48 - Why relying on tech regulators is a “mug’s game”

00:18:51 - Escaping the Matrix: Interoperability, analog meetups, and fighting back

Credits: Presented by Matthew Linares

Audio engineering by James Battershill

Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.