The reopening of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday after more than a year is being met with both optimism and fear, a senior official with the UN agency that assists the Palestinian people, UNRWA, has said.
Author: tio
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Video of white dragon in China is AI-generated fantasy
Social media users have long shared images and videos said to show the fictional creatures. -
Global health systems ‘at risk’ as funding cuts bite, warns WHO
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday that cuts to international aid and persistent funding gaps are undermining the global health system. -
Big Pharma’s Get-Out-of-U.S.-Tax-Free Card
The United States’ fiscal outlook is bleak. Higher federal deficits, difficult-to-reverse tax giveaways, and after-tax-after-transfer regressivity caused by the 2025 reconciliation law have weakened our ability to effectively tax. Calamity is also coming on the revenue side, as demographic changes drive the increased Social Security and healthcare spending needs of an aging population.
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Design Firm That Donated £200,000 to Reform UK Owed £218,000 in Tax
The right wing Reform UK party received donations of 200,000 British pounds last summer from an interior design firm that declared only meager cash reserves, and listed tax debts totalling more than its political contributions.
Corporate records show that the company, Interior Architecture Landscape Limited, was at risk of being shut down by the U.K.’s tax authority last year. The firm had recorded an unpaid tax debt of more than 218,000 pounds ($292,000).
The political donations by Interior Architecture Landscape were made in multiple tranches up to August 2025, according to U.K. Electoral Commission data.
Reporters were unable to identify any active staff, ongoing design projects, or place of business beyond a registered address at an accounting firm — raising questions over the scale and nature of Interior Architecture Landscape’s commercial operations.
John Simpson, the sole shareholder and director of Interior Architecture Landscape, said in an emailed response to questions that its donations to Reform UK were made “in compliance with UK electoral law.”
Originally set up as The Brexit Party in 2018, Reform UK and its leader, Nigel Farage, led national opinion polls throughout 2025. The party is expected to make significant gains in local council elections in May. Reform UK did not respond to a request for comment.
The donations to Reform UK came despite Interior Architecture Landscape’s sizable tax debt, as recorded in its most recent financial statements for 2023-2024. The statements, filed in April 2025, showed cash reserves of just over 22,000 pounds ($29,000).
The firm’s net assets fell from around 296,000 pounds ($397,000) in 2022 to around 100,000 pounds ($138,000) in 2024, according to year-on-year accounts.
In his emailed response to questions, Simpson indicated that the company’s fortunes have since improved.
“The company is currently engaged in construction and contract management activities with an aggregate contract value in excess of £15 million [$20 million], which has generated sufficient resources to enable the company to make political donations,” Simpson wrote.
He added that his company does “not publicly disclose client identities or specific properties.”
In January 2025, HM Revenue and Customs initiated winding-up proceedings against Interior Architecture Landscape. Such court proceedings are usually brought as a measure of last resort when a company fails to pay its debts. The design firm has twice been subject to strike-off petitions by Companies House in the past two years. All three proceedings have since been dismissed or discontinued.
Interior Architecture Landscape describes itself as “one of London’s leading luxury interior designers.” Its website includes stock photos alluding to projects it says it has worked on in affluent areas of London, including in Belgravia, Mayfair and Hampstead Heath.
“The use of representative or stock imagery on our website reflects this approach and is intended to protect client privacy while conveying the nature of our work,” Simpson wrote.
The British Institute of Interior Designers (BIID), the U.K.’s sole professional institute for interior designers, stated that the use of stock images is contrary to the professional standards expected of its members, according to a spokesperson.
“The BIID requires our members to abide by a strict Code of Conduct that reflects professionalism and integrity, and as such BIID members only use photography of their own projects on their websites,” they said.
The BIID confirmed that neither Simpson nor Interior Architecture Landscape are members.
The Architects Registration Board, which regulates architects in the U.K., told OCCRP that “there are no architects on the Architects Register associated with Interior Architecture Landscape Ltd.”
Simpson said the company “does not present itself as an architectural practice regulated by the Architects Registration Board.”
Aside from Interior Architecture Landscape, Simpson is a shareholder, director or representative of more than a dozen other companies, corporate records show. There is no evidence these businesses are linked to Reform UK donations.
They include a UAE-registered firm called Orico General Trading LLC, which agreed in 2013 to supply goods and services worth about $186 million as part of a major project to modernise Iran’s fibre optic network, according to arbitration records from the International Chamber of Commerce.
Another company owned by Simpson, Haremere Farms Limited, owns a 400-year-old Jacobean mansion in southern England worth up to 6-million pounds ($8 million).
Simpson did not respond to questions about Haremere Farms, and declined to comment on Orico citing “risks associated with threats from the oppressive Iranian regime.”
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Danish Students Face Legal Action and Fines Over Textbook Piracy
Online piracy is often associated with entertainment, such as movies, games, and music. However, there are millions pirating content for educational purposes too.
This isn’t a new phenomenon at all. Roughly two decades ago, there were already dedicated torrent sites that specialized in textbook releases. Since then, book piracy has become much more widespread.
In Denmark, local anti-piracy group Rights Alliance has had this issue on its radar for a while. In the past, the group has been tracking down individuals said to have profited from the sale of pirated textbooks. This resulted in several convictions against suppliers and sellers.
Despite these high-profile convictions, student sharing habits have remained remarkably stagnant. According to the most recent 2025 survey from Epinion, textbook sharing is widespread. Of all students who use digital textbooks, more than half (57%) have acquired at least one textbook illegally.
Survey results (TF translated) 
Most students are well aware of the fact that sharing textbooks, either online or offline, is illegal. Regardless, the survey found that 74% of the students nonetheless believe that it is acceptable to do so.
Anti-Piracy Group Will Sue Pirating Students
The Rights Alliance has clearly had enough of the continued popularity of textbook piracy. To send a clear message on behalf of publishers, the group will start filing lawsuits against pirating students this month.
“For many years we have tried to reach students through dialogue and information, but the effect cannot be seen in the measurements we have conducted over a seven-year period,” Rights Alliance director Maria Fredenslund says.
“When more than half are still sharing textbooks illegally, we need to send a clearer signal. There must be consequences if the law is broken – just like in all other areas of society.”
The Rights Alliance plans to file civil lawsuits based on the local Copyright Act and will focus on cases where it is clear that the textbook sharing is illegal. The anti-piracy group notes that, if found guilty, students can be ordered to pay a fine to the state.
Speaking with TorrentFreak, Rights Alliance said that these fines are estimated to be several thousand Danish kroner (1000DKK = 160USD), in part dependent on how much textbooks are shared.
‘Zero Tolerance’
People who share dozens of books are understandably risking a higher fine than those who share a single copy. However, Rights Alliance stresses that there’s a zero-policy stance, as even a single instance of unlawful sharing is enough to trigger a lawsuit.
Crucially, this is not a traditional “settlement” scheme. The Rights Alliance confirmed to TorrentFreak that they are not seeking damages or private settlements. There is no profit motive; the goal is simply to force a cultural change through the court system.
Rights Alliance preferred not to tell us how many students it expects to target. Similarly, the anti-piracy group did not want to mention which platforms or services are monitored to gather evidence. Instead, it simply said that it maintains an active presence on multiple platforms and in various groups.
The publishers believe that if textbook piracy continues at the current pace, there might not be a market for Danish textbooks in the future. This is not just a problem for publishers but also for educational institutions, which are asked to help teach their students about these concerns.
“We do not want to punish individuals, but to create a cultural change where students understand that illegal sharing has consequences,” Fredenslund says, adding that institutions are also encouraged to sanction copyright infringement under their roof.
In closing, it’s worth stressing that the textbook ‘piracy’ problem isn’t just limited to students. The Danish Epinion survey found that for students who received an illegal book via their official study intranet, 37% received the file directly from their teachers, lecturers, or professors.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
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Lysenkoism 2.0 continues: Podcast Jay wants to turn NIH into the “research arm” of MAHA
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has recently said that he wants to transform the NIH into the “research arm of MAHA” and a “central driver of the MAHA agenda.” Lysenkoism 2.0 continues apace at NIH.
The post Lysenkoism 2.0 continues: Podcast Jay wants to turn NIH into the “research arm” of MAHA first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Do these videos show alligators nabbing rotisserie chickens at Walmart stores in Florida?
Several versions of the same story originated from a page that said it creates “America’s favorite AI videos.”