NEW: Russian interference case heads to Europe's 'Supreme Court'.

Ex-MPs - @CarolineLucas Ben Bradshaw & @AlynSmith - with @allthecitizens take landmark case to 'Grand Chamber'.

Case claims UK govt in breach of law for refusing to investigate foreign interference.
1/ It's pretty extraordinary timing in a case that has been running since 2020 & publication of Russia Report.

As Gill pleads guilty to taking Russian bribes, why is UK government *still* refusing to investigate Russian interference??
2/

thenational.scot/news/25561454.…

NEW: Police knew a Kremlin spy ring recruited former leader of Reform Wales at least 3 years ago.

So why was Nathan Gill not charged till Feb this year?

Pls read part 2 of @thenerve_news special investigation into Nathan Gill. And please share!
1/ Meet Nadia Sass.

This is the wife of the man who bribed Nathan Gill.

Today @thenerve_news reveals how she was a key part of the Kremlin operation that targeted not just Gill but at least 2 other MEPs and a member of the House of Lords.


2/ thenerve.news/p/nathan-gill-…

REVEALED: Donald Trump has picked Tony Blair for central role in Gaza ‘peace plan’…

…but in our inaugural investigation for @thenerve_news, we reveal extensive previously unreported links to Israeli defence, media & tech. 🧵
1/

(Link in next tweet) Tony Blair’s Institute has taken nearly half a billion $ from tech billionaire Larry Ellison.

His company Oracle is deeply embedded in Israeli govt & military.

Larry Ellison is a personal friend of Netanyahu.
2/
thenerve.news/p/tony-blair-i…

The targeting & killing of journalists in Gaza & the failure of the media to show collective solidarity & to take collective action is…incomprehensible.

I feel a such profound sense of shame & failure. It’s not just the death of journalists. It’s the death of journalism.
1/

https://twitter.com/gazanotice/status/1959890434915713238

This is Mariam Abu Daka, one of 3 journalists killed in latest strike, warning that journalists are being deliberately targeted & killed.

‘The Israeli occupation targets journalists because they tell the truth’

She calls for urgent international protection. It did not come.
2/

Nick Clegg made a reported £100m from Facebook. And now the reputation laundering begins.

Congrats to him on this magnificent PR coup. Nicely played, Clegg. A glossy magazine profile AND extract in the paper that created the Facebook PR crisis that led to his hiring.

1/ It’s an abject reminder of how mainstream outlets are played by Silicon Valley, by the cosy rules of access journalism & the genre framing of the celeb interview.

Clegg never submitted to a proper interview in his time at Facebook & now gets to spin & whitewash & conceal all while still under a FB NDA.
2/

Earlier this year, I lost my beloved job at my beloved Observer when the Guardian, in its great wisdom, gave the newspaper away to a podcast company...who promptly sacked me.

So, forgive my delight today, in being nominated for FIVE awards in the British Podcast Awards!!
1/
Huge kudos to super producers @RuthAbrahams5 of Sergei & the Westminster Spy Ring & @GeorgiaJCatt & @ByrnesyGsy for Stalked.

Plus the brilliant & brave Hannah Mossman-Moore & Sergei Cristo 👏 👏 👏. Both FEARLESS in completely different ways.

2/bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

NEW: The court did not find a breach of the law.

BUT it upheld 2/3 points inc that foreign interference (inc disinfo) *is* a threat to fair elections (which UK had denied!)

Lawyers say hugely significant judgement with far-reaching consequences. AND that an appeal should be considered
1/ Here's the meat of the judgement. The court upheld the first two points. It only refused the third and final point.

The legal team said they were amazed by how far the court had gone in upholding the bulk of their arguments, and that the ruling opens the door to many other potential cases.
2/

Fuckity bye.

RIP, the Guardian-Observer 1993-2025. It wasn't a natural death.

The biggest journalistic bloodletting in a generation.

Rest in power ✊

open.substack.com/pub/broligarch… Today, the Observer ‘transfers’ to Tortoise Media, a process that involved neither journalists nor readers.

This is 100+ journalists being ‘banged out’ of the Guardian offices, an old Fleet Street custom that’s usually a jolly occasion. This felt more like a medieval damnation.

NEW: My piece for the Observer on how I was so deep into my investigation into Cambridge Analytica that I failed to realise that Hannah - my ex's daughter - was facing a human version of it: a stalker who was harvesting her data and weaponising it against her.
1/
theguardian.com/world/2025/mar… I write about how I finally realised the scale of what was happening to Hannah, how comprehensively the police had failed her & how another woman, from the same class as her at the same school had also had a stalker, Alice Ruggles. Her stalker had murdered her.
2/

Last week, the new owners of the Observer wrote to tell me they would *not* be issuing me with a new contract.

So...I want to say publicly that it was an absolute privilege to speak on behalf of my Observer colleagues during our strike. I don't regret doing so. And I learned so much from it.
1/ It means my 20 years at the Guardian & Observer is drawing to a close 😢. For most of that time, it's been the journalistic job of my dreams. I worked with the best editors, photographers & designers & got to do stories that wouldn't have been possible anywhere else. I know how lucky I've been.
2/

This is what should be on every front page right now. What's happening in the US right now is an illegal power grab by a private citizen.

IT'S A COUP.

It's a digital coup. It's Musk who's leading it. The consequences are terrifying. And it's coming for us next.
1/ Please read this. I'm far from alone in saying it. The great
@TimothyDSnyder, @RBReich, @ruthbenghiat have all been shouting it.

There's superb reporting happening into every aspect of what's happening. But there's no framing. It's all facts, no story.
broligarchy.substack.com/p/it-is-a-coup

Britain: we have to understand wtf we’ve done. We’ve allowed one of Trump’s closest allies have access to our entire NHS data systems. This is the CEO of Palantir telling shareholders that ‘when it’s necessary to scare enemies & on occasion kill them’

https://twitter.com/stockmktnewz/status/1886557329904300411

This is the co-founder of Palantir which runs the NHS’s federated data systems this morning on Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
2/

There is much more I want to say on this but if you’re in the US right now, you need to understand that Silicon Valley is your creepy ex boyfriend. Who’s now conspiring with Donald Trump. They have your data & it can & will be weaponized against you.

https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1886724188255252506

Understand: the first use case of all technology is always against woman. A predator(s) used technology to surveille, harass & intimidate Hannah. And this is now what’s coming for journalists, activists, civil servants, lawyers & many more in the USA now.

NEW: Hannah is my ex-step daughter. And when I was in middle of my Cambridge Analytica investigation, she had a stalker. Stalkers. A whole cast of characters making her life hell. In 2021, I approached the BBC: could we try & nail the perpetrator(s)?
1/

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/sta… This was Han during those years. You would never know how much she was hiding from the world. Every day brought a new wave of abuse & threats that she dealt with alone. She finally opened up & told me the whole story in the dark winter lockdown of 2021.
2/

This is president of @Google - a company accused of illegally harvesting copyrighted work - saying journalists need to learn to use AI or ‘risk missing out’.

He’s just been appointed to the board of @guardian. I hope every journalist in the org watches this & asks: why? This is a headline in @pressgazette today. This is a rapacious company whose business practices have done more to undermine journalism than almost any other yet he has been appointed to Guardian board while *still actually working for Google*. The conflict of interest is off the charts

archive.is/2025.01.30-115…

NEW: Why not calling a Nazi salute a Nazi salute puts us in a whole new place of danger. We have to call spades spades or what else is there?
1/
open.substack.com/pub/broligarch… I've been a Sunday journalist for 20 years and what I'm trying to do in my newsletter is the slower take. Including what's missing from the news. And this week, that's Peter Thiel. *Where was he*??

He literally made JD Vance so was he missing from the tech bro line-up?
2/

NEW: Meet Sergei Cristo, a Russian-born Conservative party activist turned whistleblower.

Ep 1 out today: A meeting at the Carlton Club. And the start of efforts to uncover the biggest Russian intelligence operation since the Cambridge Spy Ring.
1/
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/epi… Above on Apple or here on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes will be weekly from now on so please subscribe.

It's an incredible story, John Le Carre but true. But it's also vital to get UK govt to act to protect our elections
2/
open.spotify.com/episode/3VnVjm…

Hahaha. I just got a call to ask if 'I'm going to the Indie'. To be clear, this is Lord Lebedev trolling me. But the serious point is that we just lost a liberal independent newspaper. With everything that entails for both journalists & readers.
1/

https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1870888419699937711

This week the Scott Trust sold the Observer brand to Tortoise Media. But they're using this to slash 70 core Guardian jobs in a sleight of hand. Observer journalists are *Guardian* journalists on *Guardian* contracts.
2/

Well this is very exciting. My investigation into the Guardian’s new partner & the Observer’s new owner has just got the thumbs up from the Baron of Siberia.

I’m not entirely sure he’s familiar with my journalistic oeuvre, mind…

https://twitter.com/mrevgenylebedev/status/1870877417914663071

The Guardian is cancelling my contract after 19 years continuous employment with no pay-off so totes happy to go to the Indie to continue my investigation into Evgeny’s dad, the ex-KGB spy.

The UK media: so many fine choices.

theguardian.com/media/2019/nov…

This week the Guardian's owner, the Scott Trust, gifted the 233-year-old Observer to Tortoise Media.

This isn't just a dark day for journalism, it's a sign.

Meet the team.

This is Putin giving Tortoise's energy advisory board member an 'Order of Friendship' medal in 2017.
1/ Independent news is under pressure across the world. The US is already crumbling: ABC settled with Trump. WaPo pre-obeyed.

This week Guardian lost 100 journalists & one of its arms. To understand what's lost, let's start with Putin's friend: Ivan Glasenberg, ex Glencore CEO.
2/

This is what the Observer team & I were doing between strikes. Please read it because it couldn’t be more relevant. I interview Asif Kapadia about his alarming new film, 2073, with its stark warning of where Trump, Musk & Farage are taking us..

theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/… Kapadia won an Oscar for Amy, his heartbreaking film about Amy Winehouse. This is emotional too, a sci fi thriller with Samantha Morton set in the future made of fragments of the present. I tell the story of how I accidentally ended up in the film. But it’s so much more than that