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.
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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)?
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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.
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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?
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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?
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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

This is an incredible short film. If you want to understand why the Guardian & Observer journalists are fighting for our survival, please watch it. It gave me the chills.

Winnie Mandela on how the Observer helped save Mandela's life & the ANC leadership
What I find so fascinating film is the parallels to our own time. In the film, the son of legendary editor, David Astor, describes how it was witnessing fascism in Germany that made his father alive to the danger & evil of apartheid. A fact that informed his whole editorship.

If you’re a Guardian or Observer reader, please share this. The need for a strong, free & independent press couldn’t be greater. Yet, here it is. The billionaire Scott Trust is preparing to push a core part of the Guardian over the cliff into the hands of speculators & profiteers

https://twitter.com/danielthomasldn/status/1861164845363552599

If you haven’t heard about this, it’s probably because you’re a Guardian or Observer reader. The one place you won’t read about the turmoil. Or as @paulfwebster - the Observer’s editor until week ago calls it - the betrayal of everything we represent

broligarchy.substack.com/p/how-to-speak…

NEW: The great Trump-Musk crackdown is coming. And it will hit hard & fast. Journalists will be first. But everyone else is next.

I urge you to read my 20 lessons in How to Survive the Broligarchy, inspired by & featuring the great @TimothyDSnyder.
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theguardian.com/commentisfree/… Lesson 1: When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

This week, Trump told us who he is. Believe him. If his adminstration picks look like a plan to destroy America from within, it likely is.
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Please read this. It's literally been 8 years in the writing.

The first wave of tech disruption of democracy 2016-2024 is over. What starts now is something much, much worse: the age of information chaos.
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theguardian.com/commentisfree/… It's exactly 8 years since I published this on Nov 6, 2016. My first step down the rabbit hole that became Facebook/Cambridge Analytica. And if you still think that's a 'conspiracy', I have a social media platform to sell you.
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theguardian.com/technology/201…

Many people have asked me what is going on at @guardian & @observer. The answer is a lot. To be clear, this isn’t an ‘internal dispute’ between 700+ journalists & their management it’s a struggle for the soul & future of UK journalism.

telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/… An archived version here. (Also pls support @waybackmachine which is another vital journalistic institution under mortal threat)

archive.is/2024.11.01-082…

Democracy *will* die in darkness. If a journalist isn’t telling you what’s happening...who will?

Crisis has hit @washingtonpost. Its journalists are in revolt. But here's what you don't know: it directly links to another journo crisis...at @guardian
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theguardian.com/us-news/2024/o… The @washingtonpost has refused to endorse a presidential candidate. Legendary ex-editor @PostBaron calls it an act of profound 'cowardice'. The paper, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos & led by ex-Murdoch man, Will Lewis, is now, in effect, a Trump collaborator.
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Journalists are meant to speak truth to power. That's our job. But what do you do when that power is your own news org?

This thread (professional suicide note?) is about @guardian & @ObserverUK's future. Because it turns out you can’t believe everything you read on a poster..
1/ Since 1993, @ObserverUK has been owned by @guardian. Which is owned in turn by the Scott Trust set up in 1936 to preserve the financial & editorial independence of @guardian "in perpetuity"

But perpetuity ain't what it used to be. And 2 weeks ago, a bombshell lands: Tortoise Media is in talks to buy @ObserverUK.
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news.sky.com/story/guardian…

So here’s a tale…

I noticed Charlotte Owen, the junior aide Boris Johnson controversially ennobled, has a new gig with - shock! - Boris Johnson. But that’s only the start. There’s also uranium, Iran, Steve Bannon..& a LOT of qs

My piece for @ObserverUK
theguardian.com/politics/artic… Boris Johnson has gone into business with this chap - Amir Adnani. He’s a uranium entrepreneur. And the photo he’s shared is the VP of his company meeting Johnson in parliament when he was still prime minister. 🧐

Yesterday I wrote a piece about Elon Musk for @ObserverUK, a free speech warrior so committed to the cause he serially sues his critics for libel. Today he responds to an untrue tweet about my own libel case.
1/ This is the article.

What I said in this ‘hateful’ piece is that Elon Musk believes in free speech in the same way he believes in free Teslas. Free for him & very expensive for everyone else.

It’s not a cause. It’s a grift.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

NEW: I'm seeking permission to appeal in the Supreme Court. There's no meaningful free expression in this country if after proving your speech is lawful, you're hit with £££ costs: a devastating ruling that will chill public interest journalism
by @_EmmaGH
theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m… This was filed today in the Court of Appeal. If the Supreme Court rejects it, we believe there’s a strong case to take it to the European Court of Human Rights.