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Depth, context, and continuity through original, on-the-ground reporting.| Coda Story
Philanthropist is a great word, deriving as it does from an ancient Greek term for “love of humankind”. In theory it could describe almost any decent person but, in practice, it is reserved for very rich people – Mackenzie Scott, Bill Gates, Roger Federer – who demonstrate that love by spending lots of money. It The post Tax-dodging philanthropists & Whitewashing autocrats appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Trump’s Alaska summit was more than diplomatic theater, it exposed how authoritarians weaponize our collective amnesia to reshape narratives and seize control The post The Alaska Spectacle and the War on Memory appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
There has been much speculation in financial circles that the White House’s erratic policymaking, random tariffs, and general shoot-from-the-hip approach could undermine the global role of the dollar, which could perhaps be replaced by the euro. I have no insight into that but I am confident that Europe’s single currency won’t replace greenbacks as criminals’| Coda Story
On the anniversary of Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia, an increasingly autocratic Georgian government toes the Kremlin line, blaming its predecessors for "instigating" war The post Why Georgia’s National Memory is on Trial appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
There are now several books about the 2007-8 financial crisis, the best of which, in my opinion, is Adam Tooze’s ‘Crashed’. But the one that everyone remembers is Michael Lewis’s ‘The Big Short’, later made into a movie starring Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell and Brad Pitt. Its narrative of misfits spotting the mistake The post A Crypto-fueled Crash, How Blockchain Blunts Sanctions & MBS’ Folly appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Some terms – such as “virtue signalling” – are irritating and illuminating in equal measure. The insult “grant eater”, which is widely used in the former Soviet Union, is one of them. It is used to describe non-governmental organisations that rely on funding from abroad, specifically from Western countries, and bluntly suggests that they serve The post Zelensky backs down, Art-loving launderers & Tracking Jho Low appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
How to persist when disillusion sets in and effecting change can seem like a pipe dream The post The Danger of Hope appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Journalist Antony Loewenstein discusses how Israeli surveillance tech is used on Palestinians before being exported across the world.| Coda Story
Big Tech makes promises about our gleaming AI future, but its models are built on the backs of underpaid workers in Africa| Coda Story
Why a prominent speaker at a global conference on artificial intelligence was silenced The post AI, the UN and the performance of virtue appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
No one becomes an anti-corruption activist to make money, least of all in Ukraine. When I first met the co-founders of the Anti-Corruption Action Center – Vitaliy Shabunin and Daria Kaleniuk – back in 2014, they were already veterans of state persecution, and have become only more experienced in the decade since. AntAC has pioneered The post Ukraine clamps down on anti-corruption activists appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
As Silicon Valley’s influence expands, a new belief system is quietly reshaping society. This piece explores how tech elites are redefining power, the risks to human agency, and what it will take to reclaim our collective future The post Who decides our tomorrow? Challenging Silicon Valley’s power appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
I’m sure I’m not the only person who secretly likes a one-star review. It’s awful to get one yourself (and I have, several times), but I have to admit that there is a nasty kind of pleasure to be had from reading at length how someone else’s restaurant, film, album or book is awful. So, The post Systemic Rot, the Launderers at ‘Buckingham Palace’ & Zombie Trusts appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Georgia's first female bishop had an unsettling encounter with AI. It prompted her to ask if tech evangelists have misunderstood what it means to be human| Coda Story
In a long-troubled region of India, articles critical of the national government are being erased from the websites of local news outlets. Journalists believe that pressure from New Delhi is to blame| Coda Story
Critics say the scientific claims behind a commercial self-help program for those suffering from the poorly understood condition are not supported by legitimate research| Coda Story
I am a regular listener to Ezra Klein’s podcast, and I’m a fan. There should be more podcasts that treat serious issues seriously, but there’s something he said back in April when talking about the root cause of problems on the Left of politics that has concerned me since I heard it. “It’s not just The post The Men Who Bought the World appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Is the Kremlin’s contested influence in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia a sign of its waning relevance? The post Resisting the Authoritarian Playbook in the South Caucasus appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Why journalism that refuses to simplify, refuses to look away from messy, contradictory realities remains essential to telling the story of conflict The post What We Miss When We Talk about the “Middle East” appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
When I lived in Bishkek 25 years ago, then-president Askar Akayev was so effusive in expressing his desire for Kyrgyzstan to become the Switzerland of Central Asia that the Swiss ambassador once joked that Akayev liked his homeland better than he did. It was a pretty understandable hope – who wouldn’t want their poor ex-Soviet The post Crypto’s backdoor through Bishkek appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
With the US operation in Iran triggering fresh arms races, Russia’s turn from multipolarity to imperial nostalgia highlights a global order in turmoil—and Moscow’s battle to remain at the center of it The post The Empire Game 2.0: Through Moscow’s Eyes appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Years of sanctions have substantially weakened the Iranian economy, as evidenced by Iran’s keenness to have them cancelled, with sanctions removal a key sticking point in negotiations with the U.S. before Israel began bombing Iranian nuclear sites on June 13. But anyone who thinks sanctions are an all-powerful tool should spend some time speaking to| Coda Story
Coda’s ZEG storytelling festival in Tbilisi has come to an end, and I am both overloaded with information and exhausted by drinking too much wine. My take-home message was that oligarchy is spreading ever wider, and that we need to take its threat to democracy far more seriously than anyone is doing at the moment. The post The cash hoarders, migrating millionaires, and Monaco mischief appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
There are two options for criminals in a democracy who don’t want to go to jail. The first is to launch a large-scale campaign to legalise whatever crime it is that you want to commit. This is hard, slow, laborious and, in most cases, impossible. The second is to not get caught. This is not The post Creating a culture of corruption appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
The Corporate Transparency Act was passed by Congress at the very end of Donald Trump’s first term, with bipartisan support and an important mission to protect national security, expose wrongdoing and complicate the committing of financial crime by forcing companies to declare the names of their owners. This was at the time not a controversial The post How Trump is bringing shell companies back onshore appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
At our annual festival, 800 people, including 120 speakers from around the world, will gather to experiment with stories, challenge conventions, and build a new kind of community The post The Laboratory for the Day After Tomorrow appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
I’ve been thinking a lot about the apocalypse in the last few days, and wondering what options oligarchs believe are available to help them escape it. In Mark Lynas’s new book about atomic weapons, he helpfully provides a table showing what percentage of each country’s population would die during or immediately after a nuclear war. The post The oligarch’s guide to sitting out a nuclear winter appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
While Donald Trump lectures South Africa about ‘genocide’ and brokers peace in the DRC in exchange for minerals, he remains silent about the humanitarian catastrophe in Khartoum The post Sudan’s forgotten war appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, some 31 percent of “revenue agents” (the people tasked with conducting tax audits) have lost their jobs. This is supposed to save the government money, but it’s a bit like trying to reduce the cost of crime by sacking police officers. “This administration is clearly| Coda Story
Like his predecessor, Pope Leo XIV is a wise, cautionary voice against the embrace of tech at the expense of human beings The post The Vatican challenges AI’s god complex appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
The rise of George Simion in Romania shows how an anti-globalist movement has gone global, turning "Make America Great Again" into "Make Europe Great Again" The post Bucharest Calling: MAGA goes on tour appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Apparently, the word “deadline” was first coined in a notoriously brutal Confederacy-run prison during the American Civil War: any prisoners that crossed the line got killed. The point of a deadline is that, if you don’t stick to it, there are severe consequences. So what do you call a line that, should you cross it, The post How do you solve a problem like the BVI? appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Donald Trump is taking credit for preventing a catastrophic war between nuclear powers India and Pakistan. Delhi is not amused The post The Truth Social Truce appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Resisting authoritarianism is about remaining engaged, remaining receptive and, above all, not turning away The post How to find your voice when you are being silenced appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
What it means to live an optimized life and why Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint just doesn’t get it| Coda Story
Last week I attended a crypto conference in Washington, D.C., and can report back that things are changing fast. New regulations look certain to come through in a hurry and – judging by the heinous quantity of lawyers in the venue – a lot of people are very serious about making a lot of money| Coda Story
For the first time since comparable records began, there are fewer companies on the UK’s corporate registry. It’s a sign that anti-fraud reforms are beginning to show the first signs of a provisional impact. Companies House, as Britain’s corporate registry is known, has historically been dreadful – a “fraud fiesta”, in the words of the| Coda Story
It’s been a big few weeks for crypto. El Salvador, the world’s biggest state-level crypto enthusiast, has apparently reverse ferreted on its agreement with the International Monetary Fund to stop buying bitcoin. Meanwhile Tether, the world’s biggest stablecoin and favourite of the most tech-savvy money launderers, seems to have finally decided to enforce Western sanctions| Coda Story
The International Centre for Migration Policy Development is arming countries along European borders with surveillance tech and training to keep migrants out of Europe.| Coda Story
Amidst opposition despair, Putin engineers his re-election| Coda Story
“It’s like the boys have gone extinct,” say women in Kukes. They’ve all left for London, chasing dreams of fast cars and easy money sold on social media| Coda Story
