Joel Quirk

Two data points:

1) Trump killing 11 people via drone strike off the Venezuelan coast
2) Isreal violating international law to strike Hamas in Doha

These are cut from the same cloth. Once you create a state of exception you keep using it over and over

Really baaaaaad shit is coming down the pipe

Journal of Southern African Studies Publishes leading research concerning the history, economics, sociology, demography and anthropology of Southern Africa.

Applications are now open for the 2025 Colin Murray Award. Deadline: 30 September 2025. The award supports post-doctoral researchers to carry out original ‘engaged field research’ in Southern Africa. Please see the link below for more details jsas.blog

‘I escaped a Russian prison — only to end up in an American jail’ Dozens of Russian dissidents have been expelled from the US and forcibly returned to Russia with the co-operation of immigration authorities

BREAKING: ICE is sending Russian dissidents back to Russia. When the dissidents arrived in Russia, the Russian authorities were given documents relating to their asylum applications in the US which under US law are confidential. This seems to be part of a secret agreement between Trump and Putin.

a woman in a blue shirt is looking at a man in a pink shirt . Alt: a woman in a blue shirt is looking at a man in a pink shirt , scene from Notting Hill

I’m just a girl, who did a spinal tap on a preschooler last week, asking you to fire RFK Jr.

Imagine picking a “businessman” to be your leader, but instead of a great businessman, or even a good one, you pick the absolute worst one…I mean, the laughing stock of his sector (land dev’t), known for many bankruptcies, cheating people, crooked deals, etc.

Now imagine letting him be a dictator.

Call from a producer this morning:

Zoe please help - we thought the panel on our show was balanced, but it turns out they’re both pro-mass detention camps for asylum seekers. Would you come on to be the anti-detention camp voice?

We are in a really bad place, friends, I am telling you.

The New Age of Sexism: AI impact on sex workers overlooked Laura Bates’ new book is distracted by sexbots. AI’s power to surveil and marginalise sex workers is the real story

Laura Bates' book The New Age of Sexism takes a sobering look at how tech accelerates misogyny. But the book makes a pretty glaring failure, in that it overlooks the very real and harmful impact that AI has on sex workers. Which should be the real story.

Family in fear after Tommy Robinson shares video of black man with white granddaughters Exclusive: Olajuwon Ayeni racially abused and falsely labelled a paedophile as far right weaponises clip of family in park

This is all becoming very dangerous and the Government's failure to show any kind of resistance to it is a disgrace www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Urgent Action Is Needed to Prevent Tigray from Sliding Back into War - IPI Global Observatory The current state of “no war no peace” in northern Ethiopia seems to be preserved only by the rainy season’s predictable afternoon showers and relatively chill air. Tigrayans are making anxious prepar...

My latest with the Global Observatory, on the need for urgent action in #Tigray: theglobalobservatory.org/2025/08/urge...

Apartheid South Africa banned television until 1977, partly due to a belief that TV was satanic.

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Standing with Sex Workers: Why This Case Matters At the beginning of September, South Africa’s Western Cape High Court will hear a case that could finally end the criminalization of sex work in the country.

At the beginning of September, South Africa’s Western Cape High Court will hear a case that could finally end the criminalization of sex work in the country.

It’s a moment decades in the making, which could bring real gains for the safety, dignity, and equality of sex workers.

I understand why Democrats are citing things like a "human trafficking investigation" as evidence of beneficial local/federal enforcement cooperation, but the one cited here appears to have not resulted in any arrests for human trafficking, but for sex-for-a-fee: police.boston.gov/2025/08/12/t...

I am genuinely impressed at the government's capacity to undermine the normative power of invoking terrorism and national security. They have done more in 30 days to problematise the concepts than 30 years of leftist scholarship.

Tuberculosis Spawning in Crowded, Dirty ICE Detention Centers Doctors and medical researchers expect more outbreaks of infectious disease as the Trump administration crams thousands more people into miserable conditions.

The return to the Gilded Age continues as ICE detention centers have become a spawning ground for consumption, AKA tuberculosis. It goes without saying that ICE isn't doing what it takes to prevent this. @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social has the disturbing story:
prospect.org/health/2025-...

Anti-racism and anti-immigration protesters in Falkirk face off outside asylum hotel Counter-demonstration offers welcome to refugees as anti-migrant protesters gather outside Cladhan hotel

@theguardian.com doesn't reflect the reality of what happened yesterday. The fascist group held signs saying "Kill them all" (no arrests), made obscene gestures, did nazi salutes, used abusive & obscene language (vocabulary not usually a strong skill for them).

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

There are no magic fixes, but Section 307 of the US Tariff Act delivers results. Import bans blocking forced-labor tainted goods from the US market have led to more than $62 million in back wages & fees returned to workers. Read our @opendemocracy.net oped: www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...

Seminar (online only): Female Politicians Running for Office

Thursday 10am SAST
Meeting link: lnkd.in/d3gxgGUm

Causes of Women's Descriptive Under-representation in Zambia, Janet Mundando

Between Rhetoric and Reform: The Failure of Gender Quotas in Liberia, Lisa Kindervater

Facebook reminds me that a year ago I started a project of scanning the journals of the Central African Historical Association, based at the University of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, which ran from 1970 to the early 1980s. I have uploaded my scans to Dropbox here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ruzbp...

Happening now: protesters in Chicago are interrupting a hiring fair at the Congress Hotel, where U.S. Customs and Border protection is recruiting today.

Banner reads, "stop kidnapping our neighbors!"

It's quite the scene in here, and the DHS table has been blocked for several minutes already.

Police arrest 474 people at protest over Palestine Action ban in London Number of arrests was highest recorded in relation to single operation in at least past decade, according to Met police

This is nuts. 474 people have been arrested and are now facing being charged with terrorism for showing up in a public place to peacefully protest against the most well documented genocide in human history…

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

UK still sharing intelligence with Israel as surveillance flights over Gaza continue Despite escalating diplomatic tensions between the two countries, Britain has continued to assist Israel militarily

UK still sharing intelligence with Israel as surveillance flights over Gaza continue - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-still-sharing-intelligence-israel-surveillance-flights-over-gaza-continue

Texas has made "trans women peeing" a higher governmental priority than human trafficking.

The stranger danger panic has convinced a whole lot of people that rapists are never people you know.

And they interpret that to mean that, if they know someone—personally or parasocially—that they must be innocent.

No matter how many victims come forward.

Public Lecture Series: Everything Everywhere All at Once, Semester Two, 2025

For further information please contact everythingeverywherewits@gmail.com 

All sessions are hybrid, with meeting links being circulated close to time. There is no need to register in advance.

an absolute must read.

Important ‪@hannahjlewis.bsky.social critique of the damage caused by the victim narrative in anti trafficking discourse, especially in the context of @helenbamber.bsky.social @ecpatuk.bsky.social & ATLEU finding in 2024 only 4% of non British nationals confirmed as trafficked were granted leave

‘One in, one out’ Channel deal is just another cruel gimmick Don’t be fooled by Labour’s show of providing safe migration routes. It’s justifying a cruel trade in people

"New deterrents” are not the solution. This new deal will cause considerable further harm, resulting in the forcible transfer of people back to France.

Read @vickytaylor.bsky.social's new piece for @opendemocracy.net :

Such a sharp and insightful piece on the politics of how victimhood is (mis)used in anti-trafficking.

By @hannahjlewis.bsky.social for @beyondslavery.bsky.social

Trump Threatens to Strip Rosie O’Donnell of U.S. Citizenship

“Threat to humanity”

It is still startling just how far and fast the US mask has slipped

“Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/12/u...

‘One in, one out’ Channel deal is just another cruel gimmick Don’t be fooled by Labour’s show of providing safe migration routes. It’s justifying a cruel trade in people

Don’t be fooled by Labour’s show of providing safe migration routes. It’s justifying a cruel trade in people.

✍️ @vickytaylor.bsky.social

www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...