Putin’s Panopticon - Coda Story
The Kremlin has rolled out a mandatory new messenger app that can spy on everyone all the time| Coda Story
It’s always all about the money, and never more so than when talking about cryptocurrencies. They’re touted as being about liberation, but really they’re about taking our revenues and redistributing them to billionaires. Governments have sought to control money distribution ever since there have been governments. There are entire Anglo-Saxon kings (shout out to King The post Who Should Profit from Crypto? appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
There have been some pretty chunky fines imposed by U.S. authorities for money laundering offences over the years. HSBC paid out $1.9 billion in 2012 for moving cash for Mexican mobsters; Goldman Sachs settled for $2.9 billion after being charged with helping kleptocrats loot a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund; and Danske Bank had to cough The post A Tale of Two Bitcoin Billionaires appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Three gay Spanish influencers are building bridges between LGBTQ+ voters and anti-immigration parties, part of a growing "homonationalist" movement fracturing Europe's progressive coalitions The post Meet Las Marifachas, Spain’s Queer Conservatives appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgians embraced democracy. But a new generation, faced with the return of authoritarian rule, find themselves fighting for their freedoms . The post A Message from a Budding Autocracy appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Last week, I went to Montserrat on a research trip, the fruits of which I may one day divulge to you, if indeed there ever are any. It is a small British island in the Caribbean with the unusual distinction of being an ex-tax haven. I am fascinated by the dynamics of how small jurisdictions The post Derailing the Kleptocrats’ Gravy Train appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
In this current, stories on how technology has captured every aspect of our lives from intimacy to politics.| Coda Story
There is a saying that the best way to make money during a gold rush is to sell picks and shovels. The worst way, presumably, would be to run a government taskforce drafting regulations for the retailers of picks and shovels. Perhaps relatedly, Bo Hines – who from January to August was the executive director The post The Tehran-Washington Crypto Connection appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
As Israel invades Gaza City, even those who have committed themselves to staying to help their people are being forced out, perhaps never to return The post The Exodus of Hope appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine happened more than three years ago, which means full-scale Western sanctions on Russia did too. Concurrently, Russians have had just as long to figure out ways to dodge those sanctions, and I fear Western countries are being a bit too slow in realising quite how good they’re getting at it. The post Russian sanction-dodgers, Chinese gangsters & Mexican cartels appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
They promise judgment-free therapy at your fingertips. What they deliver is an algorithmic echo chamber that validates your worst impulses, isolates you from human connection, and even coaches you toward self-destruction The post The AI Therapist Epidemic: When Bots Replace Humans appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
The Kremlin has rolled out a mandatory new messenger app that can spy on everyone all the time| Coda Story
Covid long-hauler physicians reject their peers' party line that their symptoms are psychosomatic| Coda Story
As you may have noticed, I’ve been away for a couple of weeks. I spent my days off in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, in search of the legacy of the only famous person there has ever been with the same surname as me: Sir George Bullough, a late Victorian moustachioed flaneur who inherited a fortune and The post The Bulloughs of Kinloch Castle appeared first on Coda Story.| Coda Story
Never have so many journalists been killed in a war and, even as global condemnation rises, little is being done to hold Israel to account| 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
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
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
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
“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
