Your inside scoop on the week’s biggest stories
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From far-right influencers on social media platforms to sensationalist newspaper headlines, the Hate Economy is on the rise. We’re fundraising for our project to expose who is profiting from the spread of hate, and who is being targeted the most. Any donation you can spare, no matter how big or small, will go towards this vital work.
Frankie Goodway,
Saturday Editor
Hi there. It’s been a long week. Without spoiling anything, you can expect some important – and upsetting – stories from our reporters in the next few weeks. Researching, reporting and reading the experiences behind these investigations is obviously nothing compared to living them, but it does take a toll.
That’s made the response to our crowdfunder – which is now a third of the way to its goal – all the more heartening. Wading through muck feels worth it when we can bring the truth to people who care.
Can you spot a deepfake? The experts can’t
It’s become easier, quicker and cheaper than ever before to generate a fake video – and alongside the obvious AI slop, there are more and more images and clips that can fool us. Detection tools can’t keep up – in fact, they can even be used to discredit real footage, if someone has used AI to enhance details or make a clip more shareable. The result? It’s getting harder and harder to trust the evidence of our eyes and ears – as the latest episode of Misaligned makes clear.
Conservative Party were behind false migrant visa claim
False news reports that 12 care workers from Cameroon had sponsored 15 family members each to join them in the UK originally came from “research” by the Conservatives. The shadow home secretary Chris Philp gave thundering quotes about the need to “end mass low-skilled migration”. In reality, the average Cameroonian care worker has been joined by between one and two immediate relatives – and care workers who’ve come to the UK since 2024 can’t bring a partner or a child at all. Nevertheless, the false numbers were picked up by GB News and leading figures in Reform.
Inside the story
It took 20 days from The Times first publishing the false claims before it issued a correction. In the meantime, the piece was edited to correct the mistake but, as the old adage goes, the lie was already halfway around the world before the truth got its boots on. Even now, AI summaries pull in the false numbers – which is one of the reasons it’s important to publish stories that get the facts right and correct the record.
⚡ Immediate impact
While Philp and GB News didn’t respond to our questions, Philp’s video response to the figures and GB News’ online article were quietly taken down after we got in touch.
Drought and famine? Barclays looks on the sunny side
More than half of England and all of Wales was declared officially in drought this week, but Barclays – the bank that’s done the most of any in Europe to fund fossil fuels – had good news for its clients. The predicted “super El Niño” that threatens to disrupt harvests and cause catastrophic food shortages in the next year offers “opportunities” for investors. The bank’s analysts noted that disrupted fertiliser supplies and more extreme weather will hit some of the world’s poorest countries particularly hard.
⚡ Impact this week
Charlotte Gill, the blogger whose misleading coverage of City of Sanctuary led to the charity facing threats and abuse, decided to respond earlier this week. Not to our right of reply letter – the detailed list of questions we send anyone we cover – but publicly, on her blog. Luckily, she did publish our questions in full. (You may remember City of Sanctuary said she never bothered to send one to them before running her own reporting.) I can only hope ours proves a helpful teaching tool.
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What we’ve been reading
🔴 A man who allegedly conned insurance companies in the US out of $2bn with phony prescriptions is living the high life in Russia occrp.org
🔴 A gene-editing trial that led to the death of its only participant, a six-year-old girl, has raised urgent questions about secrecy in Chinese scientific research science.org
🔴 Two children were hospitalised after homeless families given temporary housing in a glass-fronted block of flats were denied use of the air-con theguardian.com
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