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A trial of universal basic income (UBI) will be trialled for the first time in England where 30 people will be given a monthly stipend with no strings attached. A little over 500 years after English philosopher Sir Thomas More first mooted the idea of a wealth-sharing programme in his book Utopia — a work praised by the likes of Communist Manifesto author Karl Marx and Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin — universal basic income will be trialled in England for the first time. The UBI scheme, to be run by the Autonomy think tank, will see 30 people given a monthly allowance of £1,600 a month without any requirements. The scheme will take place in the town of Jarrow in the North East of England and in the East Finchley area of North London, Sky News reports . The pilot scheme will also draft a control group that won’t receive the free cash, in order for the researchers to measure the impact of the money on the lives of the participants. The director of research at Autonomy Will … [Read more...] about Money For Nothing: Universal Basic Income to Be Trialed in England

An experiment where unemployed Finns were given a basic income failed to encourage them to find work, researchers have found. “The basic income experiment did not increase the employment of participants during the first trial year,” Kela, the Finnish government agency in charge of benefits, said in a statement on the project’s preliminary findings on Friday. Kela, in conjunction with the Finnish Centre for Economic Research and other partners including the universities of Turku and Helsinki, began a two-year experiment in January 2017 where 2,000 randomly-selected unemployed people were given a monthly basic income of €560 (£490/$634) regardless of any other income they may have or if they were actively seeking employment. Researchers found that while the free money had neither negative nor positive impact on the participants gaining employment, “those who received the basic income felt better at the end of the experiment than those in the control group.” Kela … [Read more...] about Finland’s ‘Free Money’ Experiment Failed to Encourage Jobseeking

Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photo: GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images Russia has been bombarding Ukraine from the air for more than 15 months, but recently, the tables have turned. In May, drones buzzed harmlessly near the Kremlin in what Vladimir Putin nonetheless called an assassination attempt. Later in the month, drones targeted residential areas in Moscow , in a remarkable demonstration of impunity. Meanwhile, pro-Ukrainian militants have launched several attacks into Russian territory in the Belgorod region, and Ukrainian shelling in the area has killed multiple people. Some Russians are now living in fear , the way many of their Ukrainian counterparts have been since February 2022. I spoke with Dr. Stephen Hall, an assistant professor in Russian and post-Soviet politics at Bath University, about who is probably behind the drone attacks and the psychological and practical effect that repeated incursions into Russian territory could have on the war. … [Read more...] about Who’s Behind the Drone Attacks Inside Russia?

Train service to and from Amsterdam resumed on Monday during morning rush hour after all trains were canceled a day earlier for technical reasons, but delays and disruptions were expected to continue, officials said. Although travelers could resume planning their journeys, the main problem had not been solved on Monday, said Jeroen Wienen, a spokesman for ProRail, a Dutch government agency responsible for maintaining the railways. “We haven’t found the cause,” Mr. Wienen said. “We’re trying hard to find it.” ProRail cited problems with the system used to monitor and control trains that first surfaced on Sunday afternoon and canceled all trains in and out of the Dutch capital. The rest of the morning could still see some delays, Mr. Wienen added, partly because some trains were not in the right place to depart immediately. International services, such as the Eurostar that runs from Amsterdam to London and the Thalys, which goes to Brussels and Paris, had also been affected, with … [Read more...] about Amsterdam Train Service Resumes, but Problems Remain