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Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Stefan Simanowitz
Campaigner || Investigative journalist II @Amnesty Media manager || @BowieWakeMovie || @TakeOneLeaveOne || @gladetheatre || All views my own || Easily distracte
LittleGravitas 🇺🇦 🌻 🇪🇺 💙 #FBPE Profile picture Dame Chris🌟🇺🇦😷 #RejoinEU #FBPE #GTTO🔶️ Profile picture DLlewellyn Profile picture Hugh Sainsbury #FBPE Profile picture Roger Boaden 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇪🇺 #IAmEuropean Profile picture 31 added to My Authors
May 26 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
“Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” said Javier Cazares, whose daughter was killed in the 40-minute #RobbElementary school massacre in #Uvalde

This footage shows armed police pinning one man to the ground The @nytimes reports that the gunman who killed 19 children & 2 teachers at #RobbElementary was rptdly inside the school for “ROUGHLY AN HOUR” hour before police shot him

The real outrage though, is the failure of successive US govts to introduce #GunReform.
#GunControlNow #guns Image
May 19 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Children from Goede Hoop primary school in Boksburg, South Africa play a bit of Vivaldi on the marimba (via @AlisonKriel)
In nearby Soweto, the @BuskaidSA String Academy teaches children classical music

Here is their orchestra playing a piece by Joseph Bologne (1745-1799), a black composer & violinist from Guadeloupe who conducted the leading symphony orchestra in Paris.
May 3 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
1/. In 2018, Zak Kostopoulos - a queer activist & human rights defender - was brutally beaten up by 2 men in central Athens

Footage shows 4 policemen violently attempting to arrest Zak while he lay dying on the ground

Today is the last day of the trial
amnesty.org/en/latest/camp… 2/. More than three years after #ZakKostopoulos was kicked to death in broad daylight in the middle of Athens, today’s decision will have widespread implications which go far beyond the #LGBTIQ community.

@AmnestyGreece are in court ahead of the verdict. theguardian.com/world/2020/dec…
May 3 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
1/. Two hundred years ago, a slab of Purbeck stone was set deep into a hillside on Hampstead Heath

Called the Stone of Free Speech, it’s a place where people would come to hear ‘Radicals’ like Hunt, Cobbett, Cartwright & Burdett give speeches about the struggle for basic rights 2/. The word radical is often associated with extremism but it derives from the Latin “radix” meaning root

To effect real change, it’s essential to go to the root of a problem

So people would gather here to talk about suffrage, ending child labour & extreme inequality & slavery
Apr 22 • 4 tweets • 6 min read
1/. #THREAD (read until the end)

As people around the world mark #EarthDay a QUESTION...

Would you buy grapes that were individually wrapped in plastic?
#ClimateAction #ClimateEmergency #plasticpollution #ClimateJustice #EarthDay2022 #ClimateActionNow
2/. “Every single grape wrapped in plastic! What the actual *#@*!”

You’d probably be outraged like my friend Diane was! #FridaysForFuture #ClimateAction #ClimateEmergency #plasticfree #EarthDay #EarthDay2022
#ClimateMarch #ClimateJustice
Apr 18 • 7 tweets • 10 min read
The PM breaking #COVID19 lockdown rules then lying about it is serious

But there are MUCH bigger scandals than #Partygate (many of which I broke)

5/3/20 - #TakeItOnTheChin #HerdImmunityScandal

3/2/20 #GreenwichSpeech👇

15/5/20 #CarehomeScandal

👉the #DataGrab / #PalantirPlan For me, my investigation began by chance on 8/3/20 when I stumbled on @BorisJohnson’s interview with @Schofe & @hollywills where he said “one theory is we could #TakeItOnTheChin”

I clipped it & it went viral

Ironically, this was also the same day as first Briton died of #COVID
Apr 7 • 7 tweets • 10 min read
Good morning!

Next month is #WPFD22

If you’re at #IJF22, please add your voice to @amnesty’s #WPFD call to #FreeJulianAssange

I’ll be filming vox pops in Perugia

Whistleblowers, publishers & journalists are vital in holding govts to account. #Assange
“Perugia is great. The #IJF22 is great but let’s not forget about Julian Assange”

Today at the @journalismfest, we’d like to ask you a simple yes/no question

“Do you think that the US government’s indictment poses a grave threat to press freedom?” WPFD22
Apr 3 • 6 tweets • 5 min read
#Hungary’s Orban - with his anti-Western, ultra-conservative, anti-LGBTQ worldview - made no secret of his closeness to Putin

Indeed, Russia is one of his role models

But following the #Ukraine️ invasion, will this be his undoing in today’s elections?
cnn.com/2022/04/02/eur… “We don't want #Hungary to be a diverse country. We want to be how we were 1,100 years ago”

#Orban said this in 2019, harking back with nostalgia to that golden era...known as the Dark Ages!

Like other populists, stoking culture war has been a key tactic
Apr 2 • 8 tweets • 6 min read
1/. Tomorrow, voters in #Hungary will go to the polls

#Orban, who installed what he calls “illiberal democracy” is running for his fifth term

He controls public television

His allies dominate private media

Voters are inundated with pro-Orban coverage
google.co.uk/amp/s/www.nyti… 2/. Ahead of the European elections, virtually all Hungary's newspapers ran the same front page Orban interview

Research found that 77% of political & public affairs media is financed by sources decided by ruling Fidesz party

These tactics are part of the authoritarian playbook Image
Mar 23 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Incredible optical illusion!

When you zoom in, you realise that these black horses are actually the shadows of Zebras

The photo by Beverly Joubert - taken above the shallow waters of the Makgadikgadi Pan, a salt pan Botswana - won @NatGeo’s Wildlife Photo of the Year in 2018. This photo of camels in the deserts of Oman creates a similar optical illusion

Taken from a motorized paraglider by photographer George Steinmetz in 2005, the illusion works because the sun in very low, casting a long shadow.
Feb 18 • 11 tweets • 7 min read
1/. In the face of authoritarian rule, what can you to do?

Some will join the oppressors

Others will keep their heads down, hoping the horrors will pass

A brave few will choose the path of resistance

Libertas Haas-Heye & Harro Schulze-Boysen count amongst those courageous few Image 2/. There are a handful of well-known Germans who tried to stop Hitler

Claus von Stauffenberg’s attempt to blow up Hitler

Georg Elser, the lone wolf who tried to assassinate the führer

Sophie Scholl, executed for handing out leaflets

But Harro & Libertas are less well known ImageImageImageImage
Feb 14 • 6 tweets • 6 min read
1/. Do you remember what you did #ValentinesDay 2020?

Prof Ferguson was warning that 400,000 Briton’s could die

Minutes from NERVTAG’s 21 Feb meeting, reveal govt scientific advisors estimated that, without action, deaths could top 1.3 million

No action was taken for a month 2/. Meanwhile, @BorisJohnson & @carriesymonds, went to stay in Chevening country house...for 12 days!

The govt claim this was a ‘working holiday’ but @JCalvertST reported that “aides were told to cut down documents or the PM just wouldn't read them”. #ValentinesDay #valentines
Feb 12 • 4 tweets • 6 min read
“If you’re cold, take one
If you can help, leave one.”

Brighton’s #TakeOneLeaveOne rail is on the corner of Ship St & North Rd

If you’re in need of warm clothes, come down & help yourself

If you can help, drop off some warm clothes

They also need volunteers

See #TOLOBrighton “This is a brilliant thing!”

Music legend @guypratt who had played with the likes of @pinkfloyd @davidgilmour @Madonna @IggyPop @bryanferry @Icehouseband @nickmasondrums etc, came down to the Brighton #TakeOneLeaveOne rail today to drop off some warm clothes for those in need.
Feb 10 • 7 tweets • 6 min read
1/. The biggest story I ever “broke” (coverage-wise) was a piece about Malawi’s plan to ban farting in public

I was researching an article about homophobia in Africa & stumbled on the story in the @NyasaTimess

I wrote it up for a tabloid & it went global
2/. The story I wrote for the @DailyMailUK - I was a freelancer...don’t judge me - was packed with fart gags: “The winds of change blowing through Africa” etc

The next day @DailyMirror picked it up

By the end of the week, it was the top story on the BBC website & was EVERYWHERE ImageImageImageImage
Feb 9 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
If you're free this Sunday, I'm doing a free walking tour tracing London's greatest lost waterway - the River Fleet - from it's two sources on Hampstead Heath as it heads towards the Thames (with my dog Mango)

Meet on top of Parliament Hill at 2pm facebook.com/events/1088672… Image This 1746 map follows the Fleet from the Thames at Blackfriars along the Fleet Ditch, up Fleet Market (now New Bridge St) along Saffron Hill, past Clerk’s Well (now Clerkenwell) past Black Mary’s Hole & Battle Bridge (now Kings Cross) towards its source on the Heath #FreeTheFleet
Feb 9 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
1/. HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD:

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

In 2020, Denmark changed its laws to recognise the simple fact that sex without consent is rape

This didn't happen by chance

It resulted from years of campaigning & advocacy by survivor groups & campaigners.
#LetsTalkAboutYes 2/. Shockingly, in 2020 only 7 out of 31 countries in Europe had laws that recognised sex without consent is rape

That figure has almost doubled to 13...but there is still along way to go

But back to the lessons from Denmark, & their successful campaign for a consent-based law
Feb 9 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
“The gate to the groin for Yannick Bertrand and you could hear it. And if you’re a man, you could feel it…The boys took a beating on that one” #Olympics2022 #WinterOlympics #Olympics #OlympicGames
I’m finding the #WinterOlympics painful to watch

It isn’t just men’s genitalia getting pummelled, it’s women’s too

For matters of good taste, I’m not going to post the clip of the couple’s figure skating, but instead leave it to Robin Williams to explain
Feb 8 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
1/. My TL is full of people listing 5 famous people they've met "or been within a few feet of"(!)

This seems like an flimsy excuse for name-dropping, which is something I would never do

I have met some incorrigible"name-droppers" in my life

By far the worst was Nelson Mandela! ImageImageImageImage 2/. Another notorious name-dropper was FW de Klerk

He even wrote an autobiography which appeared to have the sole purpose of cramming in as many famous names as he could in its 320 turgid pages

I pulled him up on this very publicly - perhaps too publicly - in London in 1999.👇 Image
Jan 25 • 9 tweets • 7 min read
Boris Johnson: “It did happen & I’m not ashamed of it”

Angus Deayton: What aren’t you ashamed of, Boris?

Boris Johnson: Whatever there is not to be ashamed of

[LAUGH]

The laugh is crucial

He manages to make people laugh even while admitting his crime In this 2013 interview, @BorisJohnson admits he’s not really “bumbling”

It’s just an put on act

In reality he’s “hard as nails”

He also tells us “a terrible truth about politics & human nature”

That you can “make a good case for any course of action”
Jan 21 • 12 tweets • 12 min read
#BREAKING: The UK High Court will deliver its decision on Monday morning [24 January] about whether to permit Julian #Assange to appeal the US extradition decision to UK Supreme Court #JulianAssange #FreeAssange #DontExtraditeAssange #FreeAssangeNOW
#BREAKING: #Assange has been refused permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court (SC)

The SC can still decide to grant permission to appeal now that part of the appeal has been certified by the High Court

#JulianAssange has 14 days to request permission to appeal from the SC. Image
Jan 16 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
Full moon over the Thames in London

The January moon is sometimes called the “Wolf Moon,” appearing when wolves howled near the villages in hunger or the “Old Moon” or in North America the “Snow Moon” #FullMoon #WolfMoon #SnowMoon This moon is not fully full

The #FullMoon will peak tomorrow (17 January) at about 11.30pm UK time. #WolfMoon