1/. On Friday, @amnesty marked its 60th anniversary

Whilst researching our “best bits”, I stumbled on an incredible archive of sketches & performances from the Secret Policeman’s Ball

Naked Dance (1982) with @JohnCleese, Graham Chapman & Tim Brook-Taylor
2/. “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like!”

@montypython’s Last Supper sketch with Ade Edmondson & @JohnCleese (1989) #SecretPolicemansBall
3/. The cast list for the #SecreTPolicemansBall reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of comedy greats

Here John Bird, @JohnCleese & Rowan Atkinson abuse the @LondonPalladium audience in 1982

On stage are Alan Bennett, @PamelaStephensn, @EricIdle, Graham Chapman etc
4/. “Hitler was great!”

@jimmyfallon talking to @StephenMerchant backstage at the 2006 #SecretPolicemansBall

In 1976, @JohnCleese started putting together the shows

In 2001, after a 10-year gap, he handed over to @eddieizzard

The SPBs raised £ millions
In 1987, @pinkfloyd’s @davidgilmour accompanied @KateBushMusic on “Running Up That Hill”

Also on the bill that night:
Lou Reed
Joan Armatrading
@itspetergabriel
Bob Geldof
Chet Atkins & @MarkKnopfler
Duran Duran
@Rubywax
@EmoPhilips
#SecretPolicemansBall

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More from @StefSimanowitz

29 May
You may know that Hippos kill more humans than any other African animal

You may know they can run at speeds of 25mph

But have you ever seen how fast they can swim?

Footage (via @LembaniTraveler) shows a hippo chasing a boat on Lake Victoria, Zambia
Some of you have spotted the deliberate mistake above👆

It is Lake Kariba, not Lake Victoria!

I got confused because they call the waterfall there “Victoria Falls” after a dead British Queen

It’s original name is Mosi-oa-Tunya, (“smoke that thunders”).
Thanks also to those pointing out that hippos are, in fact, only the 3rd deadliest animal in Africa

The biggest killer is the mosquito

The 2nd biggest is the human

Also hippos don’t “swim” so much as push off the lake bed so you’re safer in deeper water
Read 7 tweets
26 May
1/. When far-right activists descended on a French Alp town in 2018 to prevent refugees & migrants crossing the border, residents joined forces to stop them

7 of them - the #Briançon7 - were convicted under anti-smuggling laws!

Tmw, they're back in court
amnesty.org/en/latest/news… Image
2/. The far-right group, Génération Identitaire, who blocked the mountain were banned in France last March after the govt found that it was a private militia & incites "discrimination, hatred & violence"

But Generation Identity are still active elsewhere
3/. Generation Identity - part of the far-right Identitarian Movement & whose members have been described as “hipster fascists” - has been banned on Facebook

But they & other neo-Nazi groups are recruiting predominantly online & have done for some time. abc.net.au/news/2021-03-2…
Read 5 tweets
26 May
1/. All the claims about our preparations & how everything was in order were basically completely hollow, but we didn’t figure this out until the back end of February”

#Cummings claims he was lied to by Hancock & others about the preparedness for COVID

These were not “mistakes”
2/. “Lots of COBRA meetings are just a bunch of PowerPoints & not very useful”

#Cummings explains why he didn’t bother to attend any of the 5 Crucial COBRA meetings in Feb 2020 & didn’t advise @BorisJohnson to attend either

He sent ‘his friend’ 33-year-old Ben Warner, instead.
3/. #Cummings has referred to Ben Warner a dozen times

Ben isn’t an epidemiologist, virologist or public health expert

His 2014 thesis was “Engineering the properties of magnetic molecules through the interaction with the surface

#Cummings has now mentioned his brother, Marc👇
Read 13 tweets
26 May
On Friday, @BorisJohnson welcomes Viktor Orban, a populist leader who speaks of "Muslim invaders" & has pushed #Hungary into what @freedomhouse calls a 'grey zone' between democracy & pure autocracy”

Downing St insists good relations with Budapest "vital"
hungarytoday.hu/orban-johnson-…
“We don't want #Hungary to be a diverse country. We want to be how we were 1,100 years ago," said #Orban in 2019, harking back with nostalgia to that golden era...known as the Dark Ages!

After reshaping the Constitution, judiciary & electoral system, he launched a culture war.
If this sounds eerily familiar, that’s ‘’cos it is

In 2017, Steve Bannon asked @Nigel_Farage be part of a "convening authority" to "knit together a populist nationalist movement around the world"

He mentions Modi, Orban, Sisi, Duterte

We can add Trump, @BorisJohnson, Bolsonaro
Read 5 tweets
25 May
"UK intelligence agencies unlawfully spied on @amnesty Intn'l"

The ECtHR human rights court confirmed UK surveillance regime was unlawful for 8 years

We brought the litigation in the wake of @Snowden revelations in 2013 with @privacyint @libertyhq etc amnesty.org.uk/press-releases…
‘The unfettered harvesting & processing of millions of people’s private communications must end’ Kate Logan @amnesty

@Snowden’s 2013 revelations included details of an operation which tapped into & stored huge volumes of data drawn from fibre-optic cables
"Indiscriminate mass communications surveillance has proven to be ineffective for the prevention of terrorism

"To treat everyone as a potential suspect, data must be stored, analysed & profiled"

"A society built upon such foundations is more akin to a police state" Judge Pinto Image
Read 4 tweets
24 May
1/. In 2009, I there was a commotion in the small Tuareg compound where I was staying near Aueglhok, northern Mali

3 boys had chased a deadly snake into a nearby rocky outcrop

Men gathered with sticks & takobas (swords) pushing dry grass into holes & crevices around the outcrop ImageImageImageImage
2/. The men positioned themselves around the outcrop, waiting by each hole with their weapons raised

They then lit the grass

Snakes are v sensitive to smoke & before long the horned viper emerged from rocks to be swiftly battered to death

And I learned how to smoke out a snake ImageImageImageImage
3/. I've been smoking out snakes ever since

Like everything in life, the answers we seek are usually in front of our noses all along

But sometimes - if something is being concealed - you have to smoke it out

Which brings me on to #DominicCummings!
#Cummings #CummingsTestimony Image
Read 5 tweets

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