"Action, like a sacrament, is the visible form of an invisible spirit" (bell hooks) || journalist || campaigner || @amnesty || Easily distracte
Joined February 2010
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205/. This was the protest outside #Palantir’s Soho HQ yesterday: one of 40+ demonstrations across the UK
@andyburnham must terminate their £330m NHS contract signed in 2023
If the goal is a population-wide genomic data grab, the UK will be Palantir’s Petri dish
#PalantirPlan
France’s proposed bill to make demonstrators pay for damage caused to property by acts of violence in protests, even if they did not cause it themselves, will have a chilling effect on freedom of peaceful assembly & must be rejected by lawmakers @amnesty
amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2…
There have been protests in Europe in the past, but the wave we are currently witnessing - focused on issues of social welfare, education, corruption, housing, war - is unprecedented
In Serbia, a student movement formed in response to a railway station disaster just ousted Vučić
Celebrations have erupted in the streets of Serbia's capital Belgrade, after long-standing leader Aleksandar Vučić admitted defeat to a student-led protest movement in snap parliamentary elections. Read more: bbc.in/4BwV5ga
Are the populists becoming unpopular?
(Photo: Couple embrace against the backdrop of election victory celebrations in Nikola Pašić Square, Serbia, following the defeat of long-standing right-wing leader, Aleksandar Vučić. Credit to follow)
At a recent panel, the distinction btw "popularity" & "populism" was deliberately blurred
I asked if they knew they difference
Lee Cain & @DavidGauke side-stepped & @FT editor said it depended where you sat on the political fence
Wrong!
Populism isn’t a matter of perspective.
“All copies of Gilbert & Sullivan’ operetta based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula had been believed to be destroyed after its single disastrous preview performance at the Savoy Theatre in 1898. However, a single surviving copy was recently found”
Coming to a fever dream near you⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mitch Benn presents
Gilbert & Sullivan’s DRACULA
Lost for 120 years, restored, recreated and completely made up by MITCH BENN
STRICTLY LIMITED RUN - FOUR PERFORMANCES ONLY 24/25 October
tickettailor.com/events/circ…
#dracula #gilbertandsullivan #operetta #mitchbenn
Always happy to oblige, Mango helped me recreate these famous polar bear photos
1. Polar bear taking a nap on an iceberg in Norway (by Nima Sarikhani)
2. Polar bear taking a nap in some crocuses (by Martin Gregus)
1/. My @X account was hacked in October & has just been restored
So what’s been happening in the interim
Sadly, in December Mango died
After a pericardial effusion the vet drained fluid from his heart
For 6 days he was almost back to his usual self (👇) but the fluid returned
Stefan Simanowitz retweeted
No matter how you spin it, the #Iraq_war was criminal !
What is worse, no accountability whatsoever…
POSTSCRIPT;
“I still dream about it - deep down I wish it had never happened” Campbell tells @PiersUncensored
The families of a million Iraqis also dream about it & wish it happened, Alaistair
In 2011, Major Laurie said the dodgy dossier was drawn up "to make the case for war"
POSTSCRIPT:
“One of the people that wants to be on the board is Tony Blair. Good man. Very good man.”
(Donald Trump)
Blair has offered to lead the interim US-backed Gaza International Transitional Authority
#IraqWarIn100Tweets #Palestina #Israel #FGaza
Tony Blair, the former British PM who helped lead the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has reportedly been tipped to govern Gaza as part of US President Donald Trump’s 21-point peace plan. Al Jazeera's @soraya_lennie has the details.
POSTSCRIPT;
“I still dream about it - deep down I wish it had never happened” Campbell tells @PiersUncensored
The families of a million Iraqis also dream about it & wish it happened, Alaistair
In 2011, Major Laurie said the dodgy dossier was drawn up "to make the case for war"
To initiate a war of aggression is the supreme int’l crime
The Iraq war was neither in self-defense against an armed attack nor sanctioned by the UN
Over 1 million people died
Bush & Blair & their enablers should be in The Hague at a war crimes tribunal
“In 2011 Major Laurie, a top military intelligence official has said the discredited dossier on Iraq's weapons programme was drawn up "to make the case for war", flatly contradicting claims to the contrary by the Blair government, and in particular by Alastair Campbell” @guardian
Stefan Simanowitz retweeted
EXCLUSIVE: Palantir sent ‘intimidating’ letters to British MPs who criticised or asked difficult questions about the US spytech firm in parliament.
Read the full report here: novaramedia.com/2026/10/22/p…
“White House press secretary quits”
“Kremlin press secretary remains”
@PrivateEyeNews frontpage on the firing of @KatieZacharia by @realDonaldTrump
Wow!
“A man who has never set foot on a bus, never worked in his life."
Lula taking no prisoners in the TV presidential debate with Flavio Bolsonaro. #Brazil
Stefan Simanowitz retweeted
#Breaking: European diplomats, including French and Polish representatives, who went to the West Bank to observe the olive harvest, have been violently assaulted by Israeli settlers.
Ystdy, I went to #Frieze art fair with Tim Benton, the lead singer of Parenthesis Dot Dot Dot, to film this clip to promote his new single, ART
He painted 60 self-portraits in the style of different artists
Turn the sound down & see how many you can name m.youtube.com/watch?v=VvkN2y…
Frieze London is now open in Regent's Park! Stop by booth D14 to see Gagosian's presentation of six major new, large-scale paintings by Albert Oehlen: on.gagosian.com/4jlgstZ
“Liberté, égalité, pinkpantheré!”
#France #StudentProtests #FranceProtests #LycéensEnLutte #EducationCrisis #ParisProtests
(Photo credits to follow)
Stefan Simanowitz retweeted
Washington Post journalist Heidi Levine is hospitalised, after being brutally attacked by Israeli settlers this morning
1/. Gross press freedom violations revealed by #PegasusProject can’t be met with impunity
Govts & agencies who’ve spied on journalists must provide answers on this misuse of NSO technology #Pegasus #PegasusSnoopgate @amnesty @globalfreemedia @pressfreedom forbiddenstories.org/pegasus…
134/. Israel had access to illegally harvested data on Polish opposition politicians & legal officials via NSO #Pegasus spyware
@donaldtusk has called this #spyware scandal a "crime against the state” & “one of the biggest scandals in Polish history”
Watch @KimIversenShow👇
135/. Last year @amnesty revealed technical evidence of spyware firms like Intellexa developing tools for zero-click infection through online ads
We warned of a dangerous new threat to civil society. Now @citizenlab has caught devices at Al Jazeera being hacked via malicious ads
Thread 🧵
1/ NEW REPORT: Billions of advertising auctions determine in real time which ads we see on websites and in apps every day. Our latest research shows how the same data fueling this advertising ecosystem is being used to profile millions of users and silently infect targets with zero-click mercenary spyware, a novel attack technique we call "Adfection.”
Read the report: citizenlab.ca/research/how-d…
Stefan Simanowitz retweeted
This story is extremely important:
A whistleblower revealed that Brazil's far-right Bolsonaro family dynasty met with Meta to discuss US plans to interfere in Brazil's election, to prevent Lula from winning.
Lula's Facebook and Instagram accounts were censored a few days before the first round of the presidential election.
This had a huge impact on the election, because Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which are all owned by Meta, are the most popular apps in Brazil, and are hugely influential all across Latin America. (Jair Bolsonaro's son Flávio was declared the winner of the first round of the vote, by a narrow margin.)
Meta later admitted that Lula's accounts had been restricted, but it claimed that this was supposedly due to a "technical error"...
The whistleblower who disclosed this is Nadia Beller, a Bolivian journalist who was almost killed by hitmen hired by Fernando Cerimedo, a far-right Argentine political operative who oversees election interference, bots, and disinformation campaigns.
Cerimedo is closely linked to the US government and has worked for pretty much every right-wing leader in Latin America. He was photographed with Donald Trump Jr. and members of the Bolsonaro family, and he received an award at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida a few months before he was arrested for the failed assassination attempt against Beller, his pregnant ex-girlfriend.
Link here: panamericandispatch.org/p/na…
