Dr Zubaida Haque

The government may need to look into proscribing X if Elon Musk can not contain calls for terrorist violence

Headline in today's Mail on Sunday: After a spate of asylum-seeker sex crimes Jenrick blasts 'medieval' attitudes to women TOP TORY'S FEARS FOR DAUGHTERS OVER BOAT MIGRANTS

Jenrick in today's Mail expressing fear for women's safety bcs they're forced to "share a neighbourhood" w/ "men from backward countries" who have "medieval attitudes". Plain racism. Publishing this as hostile mobs protest outside refugee accommodations incites further violence. How is this allowed?

Sunday at the garden party for Curtis Yarvin and the new, new right [FREE TO READ] What you learn at a gathering of neoreactionaries, Very Online rightwingers and the formerly cancelled

I spent the day with Curtis Yarvin and the "dissident right" at a garden party in Surrey and wrote quite a few words about it.

My cover story for today’s FT Magazine

on.ft.com/4ooXS4t [GIFT LINK! 🎁]

The Times has got some basic legal points wrong. There's no requirement for visa waived visitors (such as UK citizens) to have travel medical insurance. Nor is there a requirement to have a return ticket, just the means to buy one (or being in a position to acquire such means lawfully).

From the way some talk, you'd think Labour is losing all its voters to Reform. Absolutely not. From @georgeeaton.bsky.social excellent email

RFK Jr’s health department to halt $500m in mRNA vaccine research Agency to end 22 federal contracts, questioning safety of technology credited with helping end Covid pandemic

RFKJr’s gradual elimination of vaccines in USA is continuing and gathering pace as 22 federal contracts for mRNA-based vaccines being terminated including late stage research for bird flu vaccine #ImmunoSky 🧪🧵

The Gaza students with scholarships to UK unable to take up their places Visa obstacles threaten to dash the hopes of 40 students due to start in September. Here are some of their stories

Please write to your MP and demand that the Home Office act to help these students make it out of Gaza to study in the UK this September. Time is running out to get the government to move on this; they absolutely could take action and are — so far — choosing not to.

A title that reads: Gendered poverty Text below which reads: • 4 out of 10 single-parent households are in poverty • 9 out of 10 single parents are women

A new report from the Smallwood Trust, the Women's Budget Group and @ce-lawcentre.bsky.social looks at the structural barriers trapping women in poverty—like unaffordable childcare, harsh welfare rules and insecure employment. (1/2)

RFK Jr cancels $500m in mRNA vaccine development in the US Since taking office, the vaccine sceptic has made a number of changes to how vaccines are regulated.

We're living in extraordinary times. This is reckless and dangerous. It's a deliberate step back in pandemic preparedness and in keeping the public safe. This will cost lives. @independentsage.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A year after racist riots erupted across England and Northern Ireland following the murder of Bebe King (aged 6), Elsie Dot Stancombe (aged 7) and Alice da Silva Aguiar (aged 9) in Southport, Amnesty International has found that social media platform X played a central role in the spread of false narratives and content which incited violence against Muslim and migrant communities. Our analysis of X’s open-source code reveals that the platform’s content ranking algorithms prioritise the type of content that can spread misinformation and hate, with deeply inadequate safeguards to prevent human rights abuses. “Our research demonstrates that these design choices significantly exacerbated human rights risks for racialised communities in the wake of the Southport riots– and continues to present a serious human rights risk today,” said Pat de Brún, Amnesty International’s Head of Big Tech Accountability. Islamophobic and xenophobic rhetoric on X after Southport Attack Within hours of the murder of the three young girls and attempted murder of ten others by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, incendiary posts by far-right influencers went viral on X. Within 24 hours, posts falsely claiming the attacker was Muslim, a refugee and/or a migrant who had arrived by boat reached an estimated 27 million impressions. Our analysis of the recommender system and the removal of safeguards at X demonstrate that it is set up to amplify this type of harmful content and that there are few safeguards to prevent it. The net result was a staggering amplification of hate speech and anti-migrant sentiment. Andrew Tate, a notorious online influencer, posted a video falsely claiming the attacker was an “undocumented migrant” who “arrived on a boat” whilst Elon Musk claimed that “civil war is inevitable”. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s (also known as Tommy Robinson’s) posts on X, including claims such as there being “more evidence to suggest Islam is a mental health issue rather than a religion of peace”…

New research out today: Amnesty International has found that X/Twitter played a central role in the spread of false narratives and content which incited violence against Muslim and migrant communities in the UK last summer

Donor List Suggests Scale of Trump’s Pay-for-Access Operation

The most corrupt White House in history. Here is an account of what people are paying, directly to a PAC called MAGA Inc, in order to meet the president, get pardons, change policy

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/u...

47% of people think immigration is primarily illegal. There were 4% irregular arrivals in March

New YouGov polling. A monumental failure of our political class to educate, a monumental failure of our media to report fairly, for a generation

More than fifty private schools shut since Labour put VAT on fees Department for Education defends ending tax breaks for independent institutions, after parents lost a legal battle at the High Court this year — view map

The headline here should say:

"Number of private schools increases by 35 - showing fears of an exodus to be unfounded".

(The increase is mentioned way down the article.)

www.thetimes.com/article/19ef...

Trump fires labor statistics boss hours after weak jobs report The president implied that the BLS commissioner, long-time federal employee Erika McEntarfer, manipulated the data "for political purposes."

BREAKING: President Trump fires the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics hours after weak jobs report.

Ok that time may have just arrived

Here's my quote

Government confirms Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson as the next EHRC chair Minister for Women and Equalities Bridget Phillipson has confirmed that Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson will be appointed as the new Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson has been confirmed as the next Chair of the EHRC. This is an excellent appointment. Dr Stephenson's significant experience and leadership in equality and human rights is *exactly* what the EHRC needs right now @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social www.gov.uk/government/n...

Britain is not a broken society The country has serious problems but the right’s vision of it has become hysterical

Britain is not a broken society - Janan Ganesh in sharp form here www.ft.com/content/c34f...

Screenshot from Pippa Crerar on X: “Khan spox: “Sadiq is delighted that President Trump wants to come to the greatest city in the world. “He’d see how our diversity makes us stronger not weaker; richer, not poorer. "Perhaps these are the reasons why a record number of Americans have applied for British citizenship under his Presidency.””

Response from Sadiq Khan’s @london.gov.uk office. ~AA

I will never not understand how a minority of people have decided that wind farms - significantly prettier than pylons, coal power plants, nuclear power plants, and almost certainly fusion power plants - are ugly. In terms of energy generation, what else are you hoping for that is better?

Women’s Euros final peaks with 15.6m SUNDAY: BBC1 and ITV1 coverage of Lionesses victory just behind 2022 clash

A peak audience of 15.6 million saw England beat Spain in the Women’s Euros Final on Sunday night.

BBC One peaked with 11.6m, with 4 million on ITV1

www.broadcastnow.co.uk/ratings/wome...

‘It was so inspiring’ – ecstatcic fans sing praises of victorious lionesses Grassroots players say England team has taken ladies football to another level

Lovely article and antidote to all the nonsense about London and England coming from the usual suspects.

Hannah Hampton…I mean 💪🙌🏿

And that's why they got a London Overground line named after them.

Funny and yet horrifically true summing up. Do watch; they’re very good at what they do.

As a journalist, it’s impossible to have more admiration for the reporters on the ground in Gaza who are documenting the hell they and their families are going though. Now, like all those around them, they are facing starvation.

POLITICO compiled a list of all the Washington Post staffers who have left in the past eight months. It’s at least a hundred names, many of them among the biggest names in journalism. This is the fastest erosion of a major outlet ever.

Inside Gaza's Nasser Hospital – where there's virtually no food for malnourished children In Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, they have virtually nothing left to eat.

Inside Gaza's Nasser Hospital – where there's virtually no food for malnourished children

Mass starvation stalks Gaza as deaths from hunger rise Aid agencies warned for months that Israel’s harsh limits on food aid would bring acute malnutrition and widespread suffering to Gaza’s 2.1 million people.

Shocking, predictable, avoidable. "testimonies from doctors, relief workers and Gazans this week make it clear that a worst-case scenario is finally unfolding: Nearly one in three people are going multiple days without eating" washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...