The idea of a wealth tax has never been more popular in Britain, and while many have campaigned for it, none have done more to boost the demand than one man: Gary Stevenson. The former city trader first joined us on Downstream four years ago. A lot has changed since then. This week, after a bruising round of media including attacks from Piers Morgan and the Guardian, Gary sat down to give his side of the story to Novara Media’s Aaron Bastani. What are the fair critiques of a wealth tax, and how does Gary engage with them? Why does Gary claim the British middle class is facing collapse? What would he say to Andy Burnham? What does he think needs to be done, to keep out Farage and Reform? And do the recent spate of attacks in the media show that - counter to what they say - Gary’s actually winning the argument?

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AI boyfriends and girlfriends are all the rage – for some. For others, they just inspire rage. So what's the truth about these seductive machines? Do they open up our erotic potential, or are they just an absurd fantasy? And how are they even made? James Muldoon is the author of Love Machines: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Our Relationships and co-author of Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labour Powering AI. Put these two books together, and his work takes us along the strange journey of AI from deeply exploited workers in the slums of East Africa to the cores of our deepest desires.

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Michael Walker sits down with Naomi Klein for a discussion on the climate crisis, fascism and more. Naomi Klein On Heatwaves, China, and The Danger Of Technofixes

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Amid scrutiny over his finances, Nigel Farage has announced his resignation from parliament. Can a byelection victory clear his name? Plus: French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen has been ordered to wear an ankle tag, Trump’s FIFA favours have done no good for the US team, and the proposed UK Media Bill threatens to stifle independent creators - is Novara Media at risk?

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With Michael Walker and Guardian Columnist George Monbiot."The most important environmental technologies ever developed!"

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As Russia batters Kyiv, we take a look at the vanishing concept of the frontline in an age of drone warfare.Plus: Morgan McSweeney sticks his head above the parapet & newly-crowned ‘lesbian fashion icon’ Keir Starmer claims the “gayest parliament in the world”.

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Zack Polanski’s Green Party felt the full force of the mainstream media’s indignation last year, after suggesting that changes could be made to Britain’s prohibitionist approach to drugs. But all over the world, the War on Drugs is shifting shape. The legalisation and commercialisation of drugs is on the rise, and there is huge money to be made with Canada adding $76 billion to its economy since it took these steps in 2018. Ash Sarkar sat down with Professor Kojo Koram, to discuss his latest book The Next Fix: The Winners and Losers in the Future of Drugs. From America’s plantation-turned-prison known as Angola in Louisiana to the psychedelic boom of Silicon Valley, The Next Fix tracks a seismic shift in global drug policy. America now celebrates its first legal weed-selling billionaire, while others serve out huge prison sentences for possession. Now, Koram argues, is the time to pay close attention to what’s happening in the world of drugs.

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The Prime Minister has announced a £15bn increase in military spending, to be funded by cutting investment budgets in other areas. Plus: Anti-immigrant protests sweep South Africa, former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has been found guilty of child sexual abuse, and a look at the ‘anti-woke Davos’ taking aim at UK net-zero policies.

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Andy Burnham has laid his plan for devolving power away from Westminster over the next decade, pledging a ‘No 10 for the north’ and ‘growth in every postcode’. Plus: Trump has announced new peace talks with Iran, and we discuss the new Democratic Socialists taking the US by storm.

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Laleh Khalili is a professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter and the author of Sinews of War and Trade and Extractive Capitalism. She is also Iranian-American, with family members displaced by the current war, a scholar with both the expertise and the personal stakes to speak to this moment with rare authority.

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