Meanwhile, refugee family reunion continues to be paused, the Afghan schemes have been shut, and only 537 people came through the UK's flagship resettlement scheme last year.
As the analysis starts of the Gorton and Denton result, I wanted to flag some aspects that my experience yesterday suggests are being over or under-played
(Caveats - I went to Longsight, Gorton and Denton town centres and spoke to as many people as I could, but it was mostly during the working day)
Quite amazed at how the Today Programme just grilled Zack Polanski then had Reform’s chairman on immediately after and asked him zero difficult questions
Lobbyists for the Tony Blair Institute privately urged the EU to support and join Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, an initiative which started life as a council to oversee Gaza & sprawled since into a rival to the UN
It's not often we get to report on hopeful news
Alaa Hamoudi won in the EU's top court against Frontex! This opens doors for many survivors of Frontex pushbacks.
@bdeeb.bsky.social tells how he reported on Alaa's case back in 2020 with @bellingcat.com. And how this evidence ended up in court.
Pls read whole piece. Neither Mandelson or Mosley were asked about Mandelson’s role in fixing Starmer’s visit to Palantir & subsequent £240m deal. It finally made headlines on Weds when a q was asked in Parliament.
But honestly, BBC also has qs to answer
open.substack.com/pub/broligar...
I've been doing some reporting on conditions inside Brook House IRC. I'm keen to speak to anyone who's been held there or who has worked there. Please get in touch if you might be able to help.
Story based on accounts of force used in a month last year:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Another absolute must-read on what looks a lot like the Oracleisation of the Tony Blair Institute
Comes after we revealed a few months back how Blair and his Institute are lobbying on behalf of their Big Tech pals www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
ICYMI: The Tony Blair Institute is building its own AI tools with the view of selling them to authoritarian govts, in what insiders describe as a bid to rival controversial US tech firm Palantir
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/blair-bids...
Note the wild response we got from TBI's press team ⬇️
🚨 Exclusive: Tony Blair isn’t just a big fan of AI — he's now trying to build and sell AI tools to governments
Tony Blair Institute staff have described the plan as 'insane' and compared it to Palantir
New by D4S and @lighthousereports.com 🧵
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/blair-bids...
And I fear the UK isn’t far off doing something similar, despite the clear dangers people face www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Where have we got to when a European govt is telling Afghans who are at risk of being killed for work they did for said govt that they will not be brought to safety as promised because there’s “no longer any political interest” in helping them? Terrifying shift www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
The Home Office also recognise that this may have an impact on user of care services who are likely to be older people and those with disabilities. The Home Office believes that despite these points the changes are justified for a number of policy reasons including reducing net migration and ending reliance on overseas recruitment.
Home Office Ministers state publicly, on the record, that they are deliberately making life worse for older people and people with disabilities who depend on care services, but it's worth it because it reduces net migration.
🚨EMERGENCY AT THE UK-FRANCE BORDER 🚨 Today we are launching our new collaborative report reveals that people attempting to cross the UK-France border are subjected to horrifying levels of state violence. www.humansforrights.org/state-violence
French coastguard and customs union representative @remivdp.bsky.social warns there's 'no way' to carry out such manoeuvres safely: 'It’s clear that one day there will be fatalities caused by this'
Great reporting @tomasstatius.bsky.social @julia-pascual.bsky.social
www.lemonde.fr/en/global-is...
NEW: French police will use nets to try to stop small boats crossing the Channel – despite warnings this could be deadly
As UK pressure on France mounts, sources tell @lighthousereports.com and @lemonde.fr interceptions at sea will now take place, with nets
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
It will clearly make it harder for refugees to feel safe, to be able to secure employment, to try and fulfil their potential. At the same time it will be massive bureaucratic headache for the Home Office. On top of processing asylum claims, they'll need to review all the ones they done previously.
It’s actually mad that me and the far-right have exactly the same take. No notes.
Thought the plan was to smash the smuggling gangs not emulate them.
BBC News bulletins leading on the story of an Algerian man being mistakenly released by the prison service.
Funnily enough I don't remember these cases ever leading the bulletins when an average of ten prisoners were mistakenly released a month in the final year of the last Government
"REVEALED: TERRIBLE REVENGE OF TALIBAN THAT SHAMES BRITAIN"
Full Story: t.ly/lgf5h
#Afghan Security Forces are still being hunted down.
#TheIndependent
#TomorrowsPapersToday
#IBPAPERS
@the-independent.com
@hollybancroft.bsky.social
@fahimabed.bsky.social
@maybulman.bsky.social
It’s hard to believe that 4 years on from the fall of Kabul, Afghans who served with UK troops are still waiting to be relocated to safety
Now a painstaking analysis by @lighthousereports.com and partners reveals the extent of the peril they're facing, with 110+ ex-security forces killed since 2023
Many of these “illustrations” aren’t based on verified intelligence at all.
Our analysis of 43 official IDF videos found recycled 3D environments, spatial inaccuracies, and assets lifted from unrelated artists and institutions.
🔴 The global far-right is brainwashing a town near you
Fascist memes are changing Britain, and the government is totally out of its depth.
The richest man on earth owns X.
The second richest man on earth is about to be a major owner of TikTok.
The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post.
See the problem here?
The idea that being a refugee is somehow a “golden ticket” is genuinely awful. These are people who the government have recognised are in need of protection. Do they think people chose that? That that’s what people wanted?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Larry Ellison's £257m patronage has reshaped the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) into a well-funded engine of techno-solutionism. Our essay of the week tracks the symbiotic relationship between the TBI and Oracle.
By @petergeoghegan.bsky.social & @maybulman.bsky.social
buff.ly/rt5ONlT
An image of text describing the event.
Authoritarianism is on the rise globally. Join us at #Lab25 to understand this challenge & build a movement to resist.
@labourlewis.bsky.social, @minnierahman.bsky.social, Shabna Begum, Amna Abdullatif, @maybulman.bsky.social (@lighthousereports.com) & @joemulhall.bsky.social (@hopenothate.org.uk).
Estimates of the size of the "shadow economy"
France 7%
Germany 7%
Italy 8%
..even Estonia 7%
UK: 5%
Idea that ID cards are some kind of panacea...
www.ey.com/content/dam/...
