Josh Gabert-Doyon

Asylum hotel protests spread to prestige London postcodes [FREE TO READ] Canary Wharf and Islington residents mobilise as unrest moves south from more deprived parts of northern England

Did some reporting on asylum hotel protests in London, which have kicked off again this weekend. NIMBYism, public safety debates, and estate agents fielding calls from nervous buyers in Canary Wharf.
on.ft.com/4fi4XPU

How to read a landscape and capture a killer Meet the former horticulturist who specialises in the ‘botany of doom’

Great piece by @joshgd100.bsky.social on life of a forensic botanist, and the wider perils to forensic science in the UK
www.ft.com/content/b821...

A chart titled "Smaller donors have powered Mamdani's mayoral campaign" with the subtitle "Total unique donors to New York City mayoral campaigns by total contribution size". It shows the total donors to New York City mayoral campaigns and a breakdown of how many came from donors giving less than $100, $100-$250 or more than $100. Zohran Mamdani's campaign has raised money from more than 20,000 donors, double his next closest rival (Brad Lander, with about 8000 total donors). A much higher percentage of his donors have also given less than $100

A chart titled 'Pro-Cuomo super pacs have flooded the mayoral fundraising race', with the subtitle 'Fundraising by New York City mayoral campaigns'. It shows the total fundraising for mayoral candidates for New York City. It shows that Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams have raised the most money in private funds, but opponents Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander have qualified for much higher public matching fund totals, resulting in fairly even totals between the Cuomo, Mamdani and Lander campaigns around $7mn-$9mn. Andrew Cuomo's allied super pacs, however, have raised more than $27mn, while a super pac aligned with Zohran Mamdani has raised just a few hundred thousand dollars and the other candidates do not have aligned super pacs.

NEW: Why Wall Street fears a 33-year-old political outsider

on.ft.com/4ncZcGJ

EU pushes a UK-style trade deal with the US Higher US tariffs on the EU will snap back into place on 9 July

Hosted today's FT News Briefing podcast and interviewed UNICEF's James Elder, who's just returned from Gaza, about the new aid distribution sites.

He told me extreme water scarcity was becoming an issue, on top of daily violence at the aid sites.

www.ft.com/content/1331...

The AI Slop Fight Between Iran and Israel

🔗 www.404media.co/the-ai-slop-...

The money behind the Enhanced Games - an "Olympics on steroids" - ABC listen In May 2026, a resort in Las Vegas will host the inaugural Enhanced Games, where athletes will be free to use performance enhancing drugs. The controversial event is the brainchild of Australian busin...

Went on Australia's ABC Late Night Live to talk about the ideology behind the Enhanced Games. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

While a number of independent festivals have folded in recent years, the overall number of festival days in the capital have increased, up more than 60 per cent since 2022.

London festivals become flashpoint for local politics [FREE TO READ] Residents and promoters fight over the soul of the capital’s public green spaces

Really happy with this one – did some reporting on the increase in London festival days and the balance between council budgets, local resident complaints, arts and culture benefits and the interests of festival operators.

Fantastic graphic viz by @claradoodle.bsky.social
on.ft.com/43xNYUl

OK good news for the UK latest - London's west end might be about to get a big nightlife revival - theatre sales UP, bar closures DOWN (we hope) - lends itself to an awful PMQs call and response a la Boris Johnson. By Josh Gabert Doyon @joshgd100.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/6bdf...

UK’s second city drowns in rubbish as bin strikes continue Businesses fear that refuse piles will damage Birmingham’s reputation, as industrial action continues

There were noticeable difference between the effects of the Birmingham bin workers strike on deprived areas vs more affluent ones. Council finances are struggling and workers are kicking off about large-scale reforms of the waste collection service. Bad situation.
on.ft.com/4kypSRf

London expands CCTV network in ‘tech race against crime’ [FREE TO READ] Councils rush to tool up with AI cameras as police grapple with surge in street crime

Wrote about the rise of AI-enabled CCTV cameras in London. on.ft.com/3FOffcP

The Enhanced Games wants to be the Olympics on steroids — literally The man who helped Peter Thiel destroy Gawker has a new, even bolder project

For the FT Magazine I spent the past year following Aron D'Souza, the man behind the Enhanced Games, a Peter Thiel-backed "steroid Olympics", and his attempt to turn performance enhancing drugs into a culture war issue.
www.ft.com/content/8a14...

Private equity money flows into UK’s consumer law firms [FREE TO READ] Dealmaking picks up in sector offering legal services from divorce to conveyancing

Wrote about private equity investment in the UK's consumer law sector (divorce, family, personal injury etc) and discontent among employees at the firms that have been bought up by PE. on.ft.com/3PzQsLe

Baby boomers and ‘Ozempic face’ drive injectables craze [FREE TO READ] People ‘want to look what they feel like, not what they may look like’ says dermatology giant Galderma

So you inject your face with puffy stuff to smoothe out the wrinkles from injecting yourself with skinny stuff to fix bloating your body with fatty stuff.
What stage of capitalism is this?

on.ft.com/4afaoN6

Changes to departments' operational budget, FY24-25:

fascinating how Indonesia is flexing its large consumer market muscle to coerce foreign capital into strategic partnerships with local business - developmentalism is back!

Montreal vs snow: a feat of choreographed chaos Climate change has made efforts at ‘deneigement’ more challenging than ever

Went home to Montreal and wrote about the massive logistical challenge that comes with clearing up masses and masses of snow. Climate change is making it even trickier (and the making the potholes worse). And any attempt to clear up that snow just causes more problems.
on.ft.com/3BVDuV6

Canadian public pension funds privatise critical infrastructure abroad because Canadian politics prefers to keep infrastructure publicly owned

How this breaks down in different cities is also interesting. I love that you can see the little bumps at 10/11pm representing the millennial love for day raves

A fun one for NYE - I looked at club listings going back a decade in 15 cities to show that the trend for dance events to end earlier is global - with UK cities seeing some of the biggest shifts 📉🪩

Who killed the rave? (Gift link) on.ft.com/3PhQuY7

Who killed the rave? Late-night dancing falls into global decline From Berlin to New York, clubbers in the world’s party capitals are heading home earlier

Dance music and club events are finishing earlier in cities as disparate as Berlin, Barcelona, Sydney and New York.

Looked into some of the causes w/ @claradoodle.bsky.social @nicfildes.bsky.social and Zehra Munir
on.ft.com/3PeiGey

The one book to read to understand your industry Professionals pick the titles that reveal aspects to their work outsiders rarely see

Got really interested in what books are considered go-to classics for different professions. Some choice picks from people I spoke to included "Duveen: The Story of the Most Spectacular Art Dealer of All Time", Dickens' "Bleak House" and ‘The Art of Eating’ by MFK Fisher.

on.ft.com/49WlwOB

Shuttered electric air taxi startup Lilium may be saved after all | TechCrunch A consortium of investors has resurrected Lilium just days after the electric air taxi startup ceased operations and laid off about 1,000 employees.

This is interesting - Lilium, a SPAC darling of the air taxi sector, announced it was going into administration and laying off 1000 workers but is now being yanked out of bankruptcy by investors (who are working under the name 'Mobile Uplift Corporation' lol)
techcrunch.com/2024/12/24/s...