🎄A festive 🧵 from my end of year editiorial on what we've learned on @BylineTimes in the last year, and the threat that broligarchy and media capture pose to liberal democracy

The Centrists Cannot Hold... 1/16

1/bylinetimes.com/2024/12/23/the… Though often mistaken for one because it doesn’t toe any single ideological line, we've never been a ‘centrist’ paper. If your principles are an average of the political sentiment of the day, then you’re always going to be prey to normalisation – making extremes seem central 2/

Since Nigel Farage has just sided with Russia again, and said “the idea Ukraine is going to win, frankly, is for the birds,” it’s time to re-ask those five questions he’s never asked about his support for Vladimir Putin 1/5

bylinetimes.com/2024/06/19/the… We now know that the former Russian Ambassador to London, Alexander Yakovenko, was part of a strategic plan to disrupt Western Alliances in the run-up to the invasion of eastern Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Why did Farage lie about meeting him? 2/6

🧵This is what, according to the FBI indictment, Kiryenko, the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Office” and reportedly “Putin’s domestic policy curator” aimed to achieve with paid for US disinformation

“Creating of a nuclear psychosis”

justice.gov/opa/media/1366… The group planned in 2022 “first and foremost, we need to discredit the USA, Great Britain and NATO, and secondly, we need to convey the truth about the war in Ukraine”

So Farage (and his funder Arron Banks) are dismissing their multiple Kremlin connections as a hoax. However, looking at the Russian-backed Facebook accounts i the Reform Party, Xenophobia and GB News are exactly what they boost.

Some examples 🧵1/9
bylinetimes.com/2024/07/01/how… Two of the Facebook accounts identified as part of this pro-Kremlin network were called Common Sense Britain and UK Patriots. The first bigs up Farage and Lee Anderson and demonises Muslims 2/9

Since Nigel Farage is seeking high office as a leader of Reform, and the media is happy to give him a platform but rarely challenges his track record, let me put in a 🧵

The Five Questions Nigel Farage is Never Asked About Brexit, Trump and Russia 1/6 ⤵️

bylinetimes.com/2024/06/19/the… 1. Why Did Farage Lie About Meeting the Russian Ambassador?

UKIP was targeted by a spy, Alexander Udod, who set up meetings with Farage's campaign and Ambassador Yakovenko,

So why did Farage protest in June 2018 that “I’ve never met the Russian Ambassador”? 2/6

Don’t let Mone distract you from the much much bigger scandal

Quick thread - but for dozens more articles on this check out @BylineTimes back catalogue on Covid Contracts

+ bylinetimes.com/?s=Covid+Contr…

https://twitter.com/bylinetimes/status/1736359359125307780

For example, just one Tory donor getting a massive return

https://twitter.com/bylinetimes/status/1736358676913414324

I thought this might be worth a tweet thread with some examples thrown in

The Media, Johnson and Covid: ‘An Orgy of Narcissism’ that Killed Thousands 1/23

bylinetimes.com/2023/11/01/the… I was still ill from an early dose of COVID-19, vitiated by a fever, strange dreams and a constant popping sound in my head when I was interviewed by @PoliticsJOE_UK in mid-April 2020 about a speech Boris Johnson had made two months earlier. 2/23

https://x.com/PoliticsJOE_UK/status/1251462935769202689?s=20

It's actually worse. Lebedev was part of Russian Govt's “Open Crimea: By Own Eyes” International Media Forum in 2017.

Working for occupying govt. Hiding in plain sight

https://t.co/1ZhXb4SU2m https://t.co/eQz3wfDgtW

https://twitter.com/MID_RF/status/873994849342586880?s=20

https://twitter.com/lukeharding1968/status/1673706138234126336

Lebedev was more than just a hotel owner after the annexation of Crimea - he was initiated this event and is described as chair of the Board of Directors of the National Reserve Corporation, aswell as publisher of The Independent and The London Evening Standard Alexander Lebedev.

Brief thread on the scandal the other papers won't tell you - Hancock, Osborne and the hundreds of millions in subsidies to the British Press bylinetimes.com/2023/03/01/fro… Leaked WhatsApp messages between Matt Hancock and George Osborne have revealed he asked the then Editor of the Evening Standard to run a favourable front page story on COVID testing as the lack of uptake was “hard for my target” as Health Secretary.

Quick 🧵 on Taking Sides in Journalism as the anniversary of Putin's full invasion of Ukraine looms
bylinetimes.com/2023/02/17/tak… ‘You’re taking sides,’ they say. ‘You’ve swallowed Nato propaganda’ or you’re like ‘the journalists ­hugging Zelensky’. These are some of the negative comments Byline Times has received over our year of covering the full Russian ­invasion of Ukraine.

Wow. A bestseller two days after launch! Thanks to our fantastic supporters and stellar Byline Supplement team - @Hardeep_Matharu @AdamBienkov @Heidi_Cuda @MattBernardini7 Rachel Kerr.

Below I'll explain how Byline Supplement differs from newssite and print edition

https://twitter.com/BylineTimes/status/1597986071379607552

While bylinetimes.com is a daily news site,and the print edition is a monthly newspaper, we felt we needed something more like a weekly magazine for a more reflective and cultural take.

1/10 Thread. Time for me to tell you about @kennardmatt @declassifiedUK and their journalistic standards. Ever since we took a position on Ukraine, he has wanted me to talk about the British American Project. theguardian.com/world/2004/nov…

https://twitter.com/kennardmatt/status/1555977779023429633

2/ Several of @BylineTimes writers work for @declassifiedUK and @NafeezAhmed is on their advisory board. So I have no problem with them. They do excellent work on the hidden secrets of the British security state. But when Matt wanted to talk about BAP, it made sense

The Spectator has still not correct this arrant misinformation by Douglas Murray. Of course the Russian Embassy offered Banks money - gold and diamond deals - this was never in question, and a lazy, fact-free, ignorant hit job on their site

https://twitter.com/peterjukes/status/1538457869942673408

*corrected. But a typo isn’t an outright lie

Great conversations here in the EU Parliament. @RoFreudenstein pointing out how Central Europeans are in the justice camp over Ukraine, while people who got Russia wrong for 15 years are in the ‘peace camp’ He says that “27 Blood, Swear and Tears” speeches are needed to explain to EU citizens the costs of withstanding Russian aggression.

Thought it bizarre Aaron Bastani marching in to defend Farage. But then again he appears along with George Galloway in the Farage campaign’s Lexit movie, funded by Arron Banks and organised by his press officer Montgomerie Apologies for poor spelling. The Montgomery is Jack Montgomery

Thread:

Given [Putin’s campaign of espionage and infiltration, designed to cause destruction to Britain’s prestige and international effectiveness, why did the security services or the UK Government fail to counter it? And what was the role of Brexit?

bylinetimes.com/2022/03/08/whi… A useful starting point for Putin’s attack on the weak spots of British democracy is the appointment of Alexander Yakovenko to the role of Ambassador to the United Kingdom in January 2011.

New thread. McCormick turns to the email cache.*

*Full disclosure. I was involved in this. McCormick mentions a researcher. Cadwalladr says she obtained them indirectly. The emails were given to Isabel Oakeshott.

New thread. Now onto the violent Leave EU Airplane tweet targeting Cadwalladr. “It felt like a long time to see my face being hit,” she tells the court. She does not recall Banks making an apology for it. Witness statement below Another debate about references in the witness statement and Cadwalladr’s citation of @openDemocracy and another article about Banks’ diamond mines. Witness statement below

Back for the final session today of Banks v Cadwalladr. McCormick is resuming his cross examination of Cadwalladr about Banks contact with the Russian embassy betwee Nov 2016, and November 2017 *Between. Now we’re looking at an article Cadwalladr wrote in the Observer about Electoral Commission’s inquiry in November 2017.

New thread from Banks v Cadwalladr. Banks’ QC is questioning the Observer journalist about this section of her witness statement. Did she join Banks’ call for a judge led inquiry “I don’t see where you’re going with this, Mr McCormick” says Cadwalladr. “You don’t need to. You need to answer my questions” he retorts.

Back after lunch in the case of Banks v Cadwalladr. The Observer Journalist is being cross examined by Banks’ counsel, William McCormick QC — I’ll 🧵from here 🔽 Cadwalladr is being quizzed over an interview with banks in March 2017 about references to his Russian wife, and her embroilment as a peripheral figure in a spy scandal around an MP