For the third day in a row, @amnesty & 40 other legal observers, have been denied access to the technology that would allow them to observe the extradition hearing of @wikileaks founder #JulianAssange.
This was the letter we received yesterday. #Assange
In her letter, the judge expresses her "regret" at her decision to deny remote access to the proceedings to @amnesty but offers no reason for her decision
Instead, she sets out rules to ensure the court is #COVID19 safe
But remote access is FAR safer than practices I witnessed.
Telling legal observers - some of whom are from the European Parliament - that they have to compete with the public for one of 8 gallery seats results in a scrum of people at the doorway to the court.
There was no distancing & even court officials & police weren't wearing masks.
Today, two activists joined the queue for the public gallery in the early hours of the morning in order to give their spaces to @RSF_en observers.
Despite this, the court has so far refused them entry as they're awaiting some "VIPs” who haven't turned up.
CARNIVAL: “We have a nice time here. But remember: carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after.” Slavo Žižek
COURT: “Wherever he went, he’d bring the circus with him. But now - stood before the hanging judge - Moody longed for fewer clowns: for solemnity.“ Emerson Warner
The US Dept of Justice is reportedly obstructing a Spanish High Court request for assistance in its investigation into whether the Spanish company, UC Global & its owner, that spied on #JulianAssange, collaborated with the CIA. (@elpaisinenglish) #Assangeelpais.com/internacional/…
Campaigns Director for @RSF_inter, @rebecca_vincent, gives an overview of proceedings so far at #Assange’s extradition hearing. Severe restrictions imposed on trial observers meant RSF is the only NGO that gained access to @wikileaks publisher’s hearing.
We’ve just had news that the US junior counsel’s #COVID19 test has come back negative and #Assange’s extradition hearing will therefore continue on Monday.
1/. “It is the greatest mass-killing in recorded history; & it goes on daily, hourly, as regularly as the ticking of your watch”
Arthur Koestler’s 1944 essay expressing frustration at the failure of the world to acknowledge Nazi atrocities resonates today wethescreamers.com
2/ “There are a few of us…yelling at you in newspapers…Now & then we reach your ear…But it only lasts a minute. You shake yourself like puppies who’ve got their fur wet; then the screen again descends & you walk on, protected by the dream-barrier which stifles all sound”
#Gaza
3/ Koestler notes maniacs lose contact with reality so “perhaps it’s we, the screamers, who react in a sound & healthy way to the reality which surrounds us, whereas you are the neurotics who totter about in a screened fantasy world because you lack the faculty to face the facts”
“They got me!” Liz Truss tells far-right kingpin, Steve Bannon, before going on to explain that, to have effectively tackled “the deep state” that runs Britain & its institutions, she would have “needed a bigger bazooka”! #LizTruss #BritanniaUnchained
"I was just saying it like it is & that’s what people respect me for"(!)
Liz Truss’ compares her premiership to a one night stand & says she was just “fattening the pig” for slaughter & that she should have gaslit the public like Rishi Sunak is doing (!)
"I faced the most almighty backlash...from the usual suspects in the media” Liz Truss
“Truss's decline is simultaneously tragic & horrifying but the claim that the media conspired against her can't go unchallenged. There are front pages praising her to the rafters” @mrjamesob
As the 2nd module of the #CovidInquiry begins covering “core UK decision-making & political governance”, comes news that Rishi Sunak - like Boris Johnson - has also fail to fully comply with the order to hand his WhatsApp messages
“The govt needs get professional IT experts to recover these messages”
Charles Persinger who lost his wife & mother to #COVID, echoes the call of @CovidJusticeUK’s lawyers calling on the @covidinquiryuk to commission experts to retrieve Sunak & Johnson’s ‘lost’ WhatsApp messages
Twitter's new privacy policy takes effect on 29 September
It gives X the right to use your posts - including DMs - & all your data - including phone, email, biometrics (e.g. face scans & eye scans) to train their AI & to share with any partner X wants👇 twitter.com/en/privacy
“I do not accept that Twitter has deteriorated in any way since Elon Musk took over”
A week before Twitter’s change in privacy policy, some questions for @elonmusk
1. What biometric information will be collected & what are the intended uses?
How will X ensure that that the data of X’s 530 million users isn’t used for unlawful purposes? mashable.com/article/x-twit…
1/. “I am often asked why the UK doesn’t have a successful far-right populist party. My answer is: because it doesn’t need to” @julie_renbe
Far-right politics are becoming mainstreamed in:
Italy
Finland
Sweden
Greece
France
Hungary
Poland
Germany
Spain
UK theguardian.com/books/2023/jul…
2/. The far right is being increasingly mainstreamed in both European & US politics
Last October, Giorgia Meloni - head of the Brothers of Italy party, which has historical roots in the post-war neo-fascist Italian Social Movement - won Italy’s election nytimes.com/2023/07/31/pod…