A German court acquitted a woman who had been convicted for comparing Israel's actions in Gaza to Nazi Germany. Judge found she has the right to criticise Israel's actions, was not supporting Nazism and was not trivialising the holocaust. First bit of sense to come out of Germany in years.

Renewed my residency today. I'm an immigrant, but not the sort that's subject to scapegoating and demonisation. Ceuta is exemplar of how the powerful manipulate the desperate for their own interests. We should aim our ire towards the elites, & show solidarity with the migrants. #Ceuta #Migration

New from me: Until recently, the gap between comfortably-off and just-getting-started could plausibly be crossed in a decade or two of hard work. Growth in asset prices means that’s no longer true: even a lifetime of striving doesn’t offer a realistic prospect of feeling you’ve “made it”.

Vitoria-Gasteiz has significantly reduced car use, expanded public transport and green space - good to have a liveable city when coping with heatwaves! #VitoriaGasteiz #Vitoria #greencity #publictransport #greenspace

Climate breakdown doesn't affect everyone equally! The risks are higher for workers that have to pick their poison: risk their health or go unpaid. Just look at the riders in Bordeaux, continuing to work & inhale toxic fumes as wildfires rage nearby.

The gig economy is not really new. Its the latest form of a long history of precarious service work under capitalism, where workers are paid via tips & piece-wages, based on temporary gigs. There's no going back to a 'standard' form of work that never existed for service jobs.

Review of @anniemcc.bsky.social's book 'Beneath the Wage', which places the gig economy in its proper context: a long history of service work exploitation, where secure contracts with hourly wages have been the exception rather than the norm. eomail5.com/web-version?...

Review: Beneath the Wage

GEP Newsletter

eomail5.com

Bordeaux is choking in the smoke of surrounding wildfires, yet Uber and Deliveroo continue operations. These are the class divisions which climate breakdown exposes: food delivery couriers have to pick between exposing their lungs to wildfire smoke or going without pay.

When the Uber Files scandal happened, Uber made a big song & dance about how the evidence of criminality & unethical behaviour was from the time when Travis Kalinick was CEO, and that they'd changed since he left. Now, Uber's become a major investor in Kalinick's new company.

Two big fires near Madrid are close to joining into one mega fire. In April, firefighters in the Community of Madrid warned that prevention work to stop fires from happening had been cut in half. Spain either takes climate adaptation seriously or the whole country will burn.

Just out, first book review of my latest book, "The Rulers. Corporate Power in the Age of AI and the Cloud" published by @versobooks.bsky.social Thanks @jacobinmag.bsky.social and @benwray1989.bsky.social !!! Review: jacobin.com/2026/07/amaz... Book: www.versobooks.com/en-gb/produc...

The Cloud Cartel Has Created a Global Rentier Economy

The US tech giants have achieved an unprecedented concentration of economic control, forcing other firms, American or not, to pay intellectual rents. These cloud hegemons are boosting US global power ...

jacobin.com

Jacobin@jacobinmag.bsky.social · 3w ago

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft own around 65 percent of the global public cloud market. Most companies and even states that have sought to bypass the cloud hegemons have given up due to the costs involved and the risks of falling behind technologically.

My review of @ceciliarikap.bsky.social's important new book on corporate power, 'The Rulers', to be published 4 August. "Who are the rulers of modern capitalism? Cecilia Rikap’s answer couldn’t be clearer or more precise: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are the rulers." bsky.app/profile/jaco...

Jacobin@jacobinmag.bsky.social · 3w ago

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft own around 65 percent of the global public cloud market. Most companies and even states that have sought to bypass the cloud hegemons have given up due to the costs involved and the risks of falling behind technologically.

I visited Otxandio a few years ago. The first town to ever be carpet bombed. Sadly not the last. On 90th anniversary of that disastrous precedent, with wars raging in Europe & the Middle East, we should redouble our efforts against fascism & militarism. bsky.app/profile/ehbi...

EH Bildu@ehbildu.bsky.social · 3w ago

Hoy se cumplen 90 años del bombardeo de Otxandio, que mató a más de 61 personas cuatro días después del alzamiento fascista. Un acto criminal que pretendió silenciar el ansia de libertad del pueblo vasco, pero la reivindicación por la soberanía de Euskal Herria está más viva que nunca.

Every summer now rural Spain is ablaze. This year seems particularly bad because the heatwaves are never ending and winter & spring were quite wet, so the grass has grown long. The Govt has to force big landowners to properly manage their land: prevention is the only way!

Another EU tech firm swallowed up by Silicon Valley. I'll shed no tears for Delivery Hero, among the worst exploiters in the industry, but Uber is the biggest, most ruthless exploiter of them all: it will fight rights for riders with all its got, backed to the hilt by Washington. 🧵

Setting up a pizza takeaway as an organising hub, registering it on Uber Eats & recruiting the riders who come for pick-ups is the sort of creative strategy that unions should be deploying in food delivery. They won't always work but worth the try. Latest newsletter: eomail5.com/web-version?...

Swiss organising, French breaks, Malta agreements

GEP Newsletter

eomail5.com

Cautionary tale from Scotland about the perils of “affordable” housing …

Ben Wray@benwray1989.bsky.social · last mo.

A property developer in Edinburgh is hiking the rent on their 'affordable housing' stock by 24%. The rent will now be just shy of average prices in the city. As @living-rent.bsky.social rightly say that this "makes a mockery" of the whole affordable housing system. bsky.app/profile/bell...

A property developer in Edinburgh is hiking the rent on their 'affordable housing' stock by 24%. The rent will now be just shy of average prices in the city. As @living-rent.bsky.social rightly say that this "makes a mockery" of the whole affordable housing system. bsky.app/profile/bell...

Mike Small@bellacaledonia.bsky.social · last mo.

A Platform for Price Gouging: Inside Edinburgh’s Housing Crisis by Ben Wray bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/07/07/a...

There's a lot of people trying to turn a blind eye to the reality, but ultimately this will be remembered as a tournament where Iran were treated as a second-class team and the US were given special favours. Sporting fairness died with world cup 2026. bsky.app/profile/wari...

wariotifo@wariotifo.bsky.social · last mo.

Donald Trump intervened to get the US player's justified red card suspension overturned truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...

We are truly in the post-liberal era - even red cards are not free from US interference! Next we'll have Trump in the stands putting his thumb up or down for a penalty, gladiator-style. bsky.app/profile/jaco...

Ben Jacobs@jacobsben.bsky.social · last mo.

🚨 Exclusive: The White House made a direct call to FIFA to ask Gianni Infantino to review Folarin Balogun’s red card. FIFA approached for comment and referred to the findings of its independent committee.

Reading new book on service work called 'beneath the wages' & apparently the majority of jobs created in the US since the 2008 crash have been in the gig economy. On 250th anniversary of the US, might be worth reflecting on when & how the country stopped producing decent jobs.

EU Inc Is a Deregulation Tool 🔨 in Disguise The @ec.europa.eu ’s optional “EU company” lets firms register anywhere and sidestep the national rules that protect workers. www.socialeurope.eu/eu-inc-is-a-...

EU Inc Is a Deregulation Tool in Disguise

The Commission’s optional “EU company” lets firms register anywhere and sidestep the national rules that protect workers.

socialeurope.eu

The price is wrong...for capital, it's right for the rest of us bsky.app/profile/bloo...

Bloomberg News@bloomberg.com · last mo.

After $80 billion in renewables investment, solar is the top power source in Spain. But these days, the grid can’t handle the glut on sunny days, and investors are bailing out.

Employment should mean protection from the risks of the heatwave, and that your wages are paid even if the service is stopped. But riders working for sub-contractors are finding that's not the case. Read here: eomail5.com/web-version?...

What the heatwave tells us about 'bogus employment'

GEP Newsletter

eomail5.com

Lieferando has suspended operations tomorrow in Berlin due to temperatures expected to reach over 40 degrees. But will all riders be paid? I've spoken to a number of riders this week who work for sub-contractors which do not respect workers' most basic rights @lwc-berlin.bsky.social

There's a good exhibition at the Spore Initiative in Berlin on the Namibia genocide, a dark part of German history too often overlooked. Impressed that it includes a letter in solidarity with the victims of the Gaza genocide which criticises German complicity & authoritarianism

Starmer was a vessel for destroying the left in Labour. Him and those around him had barely any interest in how to tackle Britain's post-2008 economic stagnation. So he was always going to fail, sooner or later. The question is, does Burnham have any more substance than Starmer?

It's insanely hot in the Basque Country. 41 degrees for the next 3 days. Y'day was 39. No one's ever seen weather like this in June (hottest month should be August). Trying to do normal things - going to work, getting the bus, going to the shop - becomes torturous...

A vitally important 3 part series @benwray1989.bsky.social confronts issues that rarely see the light of day in political/policy debate. What is Scotland's future if too few young are able to become parents? How does society pay for an increasingly old population? Where is quality of life?

Ben Wray@benwray1989.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Final part of series on Scotland's demographic crunch looks at how to close 'the fertility gap': the difference between how many children that women have and how many they want to have. "What is required is a coherent project to make life easier" sceptical.scot/2026/06/demo...