1/. The ordeal continues

A Turkish court has upheld the unjust convictions of four human rights defenders, including my former @amnesty #Turkey colleagues, Taner Kilic & Idil Eser

When human rights defenders are silenced, ALL our rights are put at risk.
2/. They were arrested almost 3 years ago with seven other human rights activists

Between them, they spent 1,158 days in pretrial detention

More than 2 million people around the world have demanded justice but truth & justice have become strangers in Turkey #FreeRightsDefenders
3/. “We are responsible not only for what we say but what we fail to say by staying silent." A. Nesin

At times of greater repression, the job of human rights activists becomes more vital...& also more dangerous

In 2018, @Snowden called for their release.
4/. “This has been a politically-motivated trial aimed at silencing those of us in the dock & send a message to the rest of society: fight for human rights or speak the truth at your peril.” (Idil Eser)

The appeal will now go to #Turkey’s highest court.

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More from @StefSimanowitz

2 Dec
In June, when @KayBurley asked @MattHancock why the contact tracing app was such a disaster he could hardly stop laughing

Today, when she was asking him about the six-fold increased risk of death for people with learning difficulties, he was grinning.
A govt minister grinning & laughing inappropriately isn’t a big deal

What’s more concerning is how unaffected ministers have remained in the face of the soaring death toll that has resulted from their #COVID19 strategy

Watch their body language, their eyes, their bullishness.
The only time the Cabinet seemed truly ruffled was NOT when the death toll became the highest in Europe or when the #CareHomeScandal broke or when it was revealed late lockdown had cost 20,000+ lives

It was when #Cummings’ trip to #BarnardCastle came out.
Read 4 tweets
27 Nov
"If you're cold, take one. If you can help, leave one"

With freezing temperatures hitting the UK, & forecasters predicting this could be the coldest winter in eight years, why not help #TakeOneLeaveOne?

Drop off warm clothes to your local #TOLO rail or set one up where you are.
To set up a #TakeOneLeaveOne rail where you are, all you need to do is:

1 Get a rail

2 Find good location (ideally covered) outside a church/town hall/shop/underpass

3 Get permission of locals/shopkeepers

4 Make a sign/order one for £30 or DM me

5 Hang up warm clothes #TOLO
Thanks for spreading the word & helping homeless people & rough sleepers to stay warm this winter

We got the idea for #TakeOneLeaveOne from a woman in the US who got the idea from Mexico

#TOLO is not a solution to homelessness. But it is sadly needed.
voanews.com/europe/mexican…
Read 4 tweets
27 Nov
1/ Journalism under attack!

“This week @openDemocracy revealed that the Cabinet Office runs a secretive unit that screens FOIs from journalists even tho requesters’ names are supposed to be kept private. It’s called the Clearing House. But it gets worse.”
opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
2/. The atmosphere for journalists & journalism is becoming more toxic

On 13/3, the Telegraph ran a article by barrister, Bobby Friedman, warning:

“Those questioning the govt’s #coronavirus strategy are not only wrong, they’re a danger to the rest of us"
3/. The govt 'freezes out' journalists who refuse to toe the line & rewards those that do

This has echoes of the way in which #Trump demonised the media as "enemies of the people"

But the similarities btw US & UK don't stop there, especially on #COVID19.
Read 4 tweets
26 Nov
“Is it blue side in or blue side out?”

For the first 4 months the UK & US govts told us we didn’t need to use face masks, despite of evidence to the contrary

Then they became mandatory but there’s been no public information about how to even wear a mask.
The govt - & media - spent months arguing whether we should wear #facemasks

Based on the science & the precautionary principle, face masks should have been introduced early as they reduce the spread of #COVID19

They were mandatory in 120 countries before UK & US introduced them
After 4 months of prevarication on masks, the UK & US shifted

Trump & Johnson were both photographed wearing a mask for the first time on the SAME DAY

Like delaying lockdown & testing, this is just one of many parallels btw UK & US #COVID19 strategy. Are these coincidental?
Read 7 tweets
22 Nov
1/. This diagram shows how the US & UK govts appear to have a joint/parallel #COVID19 strategy, giving military-backed data-mining company, #Palantir, access to heath data on a mass scale

Palantir, founded by right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, has links with #CambridgeAnalytica Image
2/. According to #CambridgeAnalytica whistleblower, @chrisinsilico, in 2015 he was tasked by Steve Bannon to build a psychological warfare tool designed to use big data & social media to drive open cracks in societies & hollow out democracies.

It worked!
3/. Thiel not only backed Trump in 2016, but Palantir employees reportedly worked with #CambridgeAnalytica, harvesting Facebook data ahead of the elections

At the start of 2017, Trump appointed three Palantir employees, to key roles in his administration.
Read 14 tweets
21 Nov
“There is no point having a merry Christmas then burying friends & family in January.”

Director the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre & @IndependentSage member,
@GabrielScally #COVID19 #Thanksgiving #Thanksgiving2020 #holidays #coronavirus
‘I don’t think it will do that.’

Hancock says he doesn’t think allowing families to gather at Christmas will lead to deaths

We don’t care what @MattHancock thinks

We care what experts & scientists advise

Why hasn’t the govt published any #JBC minutes?
Since July, the UK’s #COVID19 response is run by the secretive #JointBiosecurityCentre

The #JBC doesn’t share the science that leads them to take decisions

They haven’t released any minutes in 7 months

This lack of transparency makes proper scrutiny of govt decisions difficult
Read 5 tweets

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