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Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Stefan Simanowitz
@StefSimanowitz
"Action, like a sacrament, is the visible form of an invisible spirit" (bell hooks) || journalist || campaigner || @amnesty || Easily distracte
39 subscribers
Jun 25 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
Wow!

Incredible news to wake up to

Julian Assange is free after a plea deal

He was released on bail from Belmarsh prison & boarded a plane which is currently heading to Australia

His release is a testament to those fought for his freedom #JulianAssange

Julian Assange is scheduled to appear in a federal court in Saipan, a US commonwealth in the Pacific, where he’s expected to plead guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act & be sentenced to 5yrs

Given he’s already served this time, he should walk free
May 15 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
1/. Four years, ago this tweet👇broke the #CareHomeScandal

The govt had INSTRUCTED hospitals to send people “who may have #COVID19” to care homes WITHOUT TESTING

They KNEW about asymptomatic transmission in Jan 2020

Many thousands died

This revelation led to other questions…
Image 2/. From the start of the pandemic the govt had given #Palantir, a US spyware company with reported links to #CambridgeAnalytica, access to NHS health data

The NHS = the most trusted brand in the UK

Cambridge Analytica = the least trusted

Disturbing…

Mar 9 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
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 Image
Feb 23 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
“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 (!)
Jan 4 • 18 tweets • 11 min read
1/. In 2020 I started a thread warning that Trump might launch an attack on Iran before the end of his term

It wasn’t the first time there had been a real danger of a US-led, Israeli backed attack (records show Bush had come close in 2007/8)

The risk appears now to be very high
Image 2/. It’s clear that the bomb blasts in Kerman on the 4th anniversary of #Soleimani's assassination by the US, could lead to a quick ratcheting up of dangerous tensions

After Oct 7, the US sent two aircraft carrier groups to the region

Iran just deployed a warship to the Red Sea
Image
Nov 6, 2023 • 13 tweets • 8 min read
Despite previous denials, Michelle Mone finally admits her involvement in failed PPE supplier Medpro

There should be a criminal investigation into possible intentional breach of beneficial ownership disclosure rules

The govt VIP Lane needs investigating

Something about the #MichelleMone interview doesn’t pass the smell test

Why are Mone & her husband - currently under criminal investigation in UK & Spain - being given a prime time slot to tell ‘their side of the story’?

5 questions @bbclaurak should ask

Oct 3, 2023 • 58 tweets • 35 min read
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

Both claim they can’t access key messages
#COVID
Image “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
Sep 9, 2023 • 13 tweets • 6 min read
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



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Image “I do not accept that Twitter has deteriorated in any way since Elon Musk took over”
Aug 7, 2023 • 12 tweets • 8 min read
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…

Image
May 19, 2023 • 6 tweets • 5 min read
1/. #BREAKING: “Greece Says It Doesn’t Ditch Migrants at Sea. It Was Caught in the Act”

@nytimes video evidence shows asylum seekers, including children, being rounded up after arriving on #Lesvos, taken to sea + abandoned on a dinghy by Greek coast guard nytimes.com/2023/05/19/wor… 2/. This does not come as a surprise

In 2021, @amnesty documented how the Greek authorities are conducting illegal pushbacks at land & sea

These are not random instances

"Violent pushbacks have become the de facto Greek border policy" Amnesty concludes bit.ly/3MDXzSq
May 2, 2023 • 12 tweets • 13 min read
1/. In the centre of the swirling madness of London traffic there’s a green oasis: Buckingham Palace Gardens

At his #Coronation, we hope #KingCharles will announce the creation of a new London park - #QueenElizabeyhMemorialGardens - a gift to the nation👇
2/. The proposal - a decade in the making - is to use a strip of the gardens to create a park that would be a legacy to the Queen & transform this congested corner of London

Arched entrances would be cut into the wall & a new fence would built to ensure Palace security & privacy Image
Apr 21, 2023 • 4 tweets • 8 min read
It’s #EarthDay2023 & #TheBigOne has begun

Four days of non-violent protest, organised by @ExtinctionR supported by 200+ organisations including @FoEint, @Greenpeace, @ecotricity, @pcs_union, @GlobalJusticeUK, @CNDuk, @NHSworkersSayNo, @patagonia & more 👉
extinctionrebellion.uk/the-big-one/ Image This #EarthDay show of solidarity should motivate everyone to engage in the campaign to protect us from the devastating impact of climate change

“@amnesty salutes everyone who is helping to promote the protection of our planet & human rights” @MartaSchaaf
amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
Apr 8, 2023 • 15 tweets • 9 min read
1/. Richard Sharp owns a multimillion pound stake in a healthcare company which was granted nearly £600k for Covid research while he worked in No 10

Sharp donated £400,000 to the Conservative Party & helped organise a loan of £800,000 for Boris Johnson
theguardian.com/media/2023/jan… 2/. In February 2023, Sharp was questioned about his appointment as BBC Chair

@MrJohnNicolson described the situation as “a job gifted to him by Boris Johnson. Establishment pals helping pals helping pals. Donating money to pals. Getting jobs from pals”
Apr 2, 2023 • 7 tweets • 7 min read
1/. Today marks 3 years since the govt INSTRUCTED hospitals to send people “who may have #COVID19” to care homes WITHOUT TESTING

The govt KNEW about asymptomatic transmission in Jan/Feb 2020

Tens of thousands died

Which minister signed this off…& why?

See #CareHomeScandal👇 2/. “They cover-up crime with scandal & cover-up malice with incompetence. They want to project an image of being inept, instead of as having a cruel & well-defined plan” @sarahkendzior

Last week marked the 3rd anniversary of the US “nursing home scandal”

Parallel strategies?👇
Apr 1, 2023 • 6 tweets • 7 min read
#BREAKING: Scientists have released photographs of what is thought to be a the first recorded unicorn, discovered in a remote part of the Galápagos Islands

The creature - nicknamed ‘the Rainbow Unicorn” due to its colourful tusk - is believed to a cross between a narwhal & a dog An intn’l team of scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation said in a statement:

“For thousands of years, each mating season, blessings of Narwhals have come ashore at this remote beach

Being mammals, it appears that they successfully bred with dogs”
Mar 27, 2023 • 7 tweets • 7 min read
Q. What’s the worst day of the year for dictators, despots & populists?

A. Tmw ‘cos @amnesty release our annual report on the state of #HumanRights in 156 countries

DM me for a copy
(Video👇featuring @NazaninBoniadi, @angeliquekidjo @itspetergabriel @U2)
“It’s easy to feel hopeless in the face of atrocities & abuses but throughout the last year, people have shown we’re not powerless. We need less hypocrisy, less cynicism, & more action by all states to promote & protect all rights” @AgnesCallamard @amnesty
Mar 18, 2023 • 13 tweets • 13 min read
85/. #OTD 20 years ago, Iraq rejected the US ultimatum for Saddam Hussein & his sons to leave the country

The UN was obliged to pull its arms inspector out of the country

A massive military force was amassed around Iraqi borders

The stage was set for war
#IraqInvasion #IraqWar Image 86/. “As the US prepares to attack Iraq, it is doing so on the basis of a number of allegations against Saddam Hussein that have been challenged - & in some cases disproved - by the UN, European govts & even US intel reports”

#OTD this @washingtonpost story was buried on page 13 Image
Mar 7, 2023 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
1/. Tmw, Amnesty Turkey's former Chair Taner Kılıç & Amnesty Turkey's ex-director, İdil Eser, Özlem will be back in court facing absurd "terrorism" charges

@amnesty & @aforgutu will be there to demand their acquittal after almost 6 years of judicial farce
amnesty.org/en/latest/news… 2/. These politically-motivated prosecutions aim to silence critical voices in Turkey

Over the course of 12 hearings, every allegation levelled against these human rights activists was repeatedly & comprehensively proven baseless

It’s taken a heavy toll
Mar 3, 2023 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
1/. On 5 March 2020, the BBC reported that a 70 year-old woman in Reading had became the first Briton to die of COVID19

Three years on - this Sunday - we mark #CovidMemorialDay by lighting a candle at 7pm & observing a minute's silence to honour the dead
covidmemorialday.org.uk 2/. One doesn’t truly recover from loss. If you are lucky, you will heal from loss. But never completely

Shakespeare warns that if we fail to "give sorrow words the grief will o-er wrought heart & bid it break"

#CovidMemorialDay we give our sorrow words
amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
Mar 1, 2023 • 8 tweets • 8 min read
Leaked emails show Matt Hancock ignored advice to test all people entering care homes during the pandemic

On 13/5/20, I broke the #CareHomeScandal👇

Three years on, these leaks reveal Hancock decided not to make it mandatory to test those entering care homes from the community! Image “We stuck to the science like glue” @BorisJohnson

“We were guided by the science. We didn't always follow the science" HANCOCK

Cod behavioural science gave us “behavioural/lockdown fatigue”

Asymptomatic spread was ignored

Many errors were made…but these weren’t ‘mistakes’👇 ImageImageImageImage
Feb 25, 2023 • 8 tweets • 6 min read
Anyone on Twitter know what this might be?

A square of metal (iron?) embedded two feet beneath the soil, pulled up by a 350 year old fallen tree, on the ancient thoroughl-fare (now Mill Lane) that ran beside the River Fleet (Highgate Brook) UPDATE: After some delicate excavation, it seems as if the ancient iron square exposed by the fallen oak is attached to an iron post (gate post?)

For a history of the River Fleet - London’s most beautiful subterranean waterway - see below👇