There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
Reforming a fast-evolving media landscape
As the traditional hard-copy newspaper industry declines and digital content evolves in ways we could not have predicted, the demand to hold the media accountable becomes more pressing, writes TONY BURKE
[Stevepb / Creative Commons] 
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
AT the Labour Party conference in Liverpool this week Media North (previously the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom) will be calling on the next Labour government to set out plans for media reform and to push the issue up the agenda within the Labour Party.
Media North argue it is time for Labour to recognise the sector we call “the media” includes not just newspapers, magazines and traditional broadcasters but involves the rapidly expanding digital media — including content providers, the use of artificial intelligence to produce content, the peddling of “fake news” (which acts as an echo chamber) and potential mergers in the telecoms and communications sector such as the proposed merger of Vodaphone and Three giving control to the Chinese CK Group, owner of Three which has links to the Chinese government and the Conservative Party.
Fewer people are now directly dependent on reading the mainstream media to obtain news and information. Sales of national and regional titles continue to fall as more people rely on reading news and opinion from content providers who provide click-bait stories designed to find their way online and increasingly via podcasts — some of which are excellent — but some of which are increasingly dominated by right-wing ideologues.
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