#UK Guardian

[embers-burning-bright]

REMINDER TO NOT TALK TO THE GUARDIAN ABOUT DIY HRT IF ASKED ❗️❗️❗️

Susanna Rustin is a huge TERF too, and a quick search of her name on The Guardian brings up repeated proof.

[davidbrussat]

In London, a laudable teardown

The left image shows the original design; the right image is the final product. (Guardian) In London a developer has been ordered to tear down a completed 23-story residential building in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, in the southeast of London, because it deviates too far from the original proposal. Residents of 204 flats will have to find lodgings elsewhere. The authority that so declared…

[averycanadianfilm]

The next year, Gebru made a point of counting other black attenders at the same event. She found that, among 8,500 delegates, there were only six people of colour. In response, she put up a Facebook post that now seems prescient: “I’m not worried about machines taking over the world; I’m worried about groupthink, insularity and arrogance in the AI community.”

UK Guardian

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

hey so remember those new protest laws that make peaceful protest illegal? yeah? wanna see them in action?

[alt text:]

Head of UK’s leading anti-monarchy group arrested at coronation protest

Republic’s Graham Smith held at protest on King Charles III’s procession route in central London

Daniel Boffey Chief reporter, Sat 6 May 2023 08.31 BST

The head of the UK’s leading republican movement has been arrested at an anti-monarchist protest on King Charles III’s procession route.

Graham Smith had been collecting drinks and placards for demonstrators at Trafalgar Square when he was detained by police on the Strand in central London.

It is understood Smith was detained after bringing a megaphone to the demonstration. The Met police had tweeted earlier this week that they would have a “low tolerance” of those seeking to “undermine” the day.

Harry Stratton, a director at Republic, who arrived as Smith and the others were detained, said: “They were collecting the placards and bringing them over when the police stopped them.

“The guys asked why and they were told: we will tell you that once we have searched the vehicle. That’s when they arrested the six organisers. We asked on what grounds they had been arrested but they wouldn’t say. It is a surprise as we had had a number of meetings with the police. They had been making all the right noises”.

full article

dont you love it when your government decides to not even bother hiding the fact the fascist tendencies theyre leaning more and more into?

[mysharona1987]

[rainbowpopeworld]

New interview with Michael Sheen just published- some excerpts below

About his relationship with Kate Beckinsale:

“Have they always got on well since splitting up?

“We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’re very important in each other’s lives. It would be really sad if we weren’t – like cutting off a whole part of your life. I’m not saying it doesn’t have its challenges, and I’m sure it’s been harder for her than for me.”

Why? “Because … ” He pauses and smiles. “Because I’m more of a twat!”

In what way? Another smile. “I’m not going to tell you that, am I?””

About going into politics:

“He looks appalled at the idea.

“Oh God, no. No! I’d be awful.”

Why? “Because I don’t want to say what other people are telling me to say if I don’t agree with it.”

…“People say I should go into politics because I’m passionate about things and I speak my mind. But then you get into politics and you’re not allowed to do that any more. I’ve got far more of a platform as myself. I can say what I want to say.”

[probablyasocialecologist]

In January 2016, a leading British newspaper ran a series of articles about the trans community. Virtually all of them were overwhelmingly positive and inclusive. Surprisingly, the newspaper in question was the Daily Telegraph – now famous for its deeply critical stance towards trans people. The Telegraph’s dramatic shift in attitude towards the trans community reflects a general trend amongst Britain’s press. Coverage of trans people has increased sizeably since 2015, and the overwhelming majority of articles have been negative. At the same time, public attitudes towards trans people have hardened significantly, and both major political parties have abandoned their previous commitments to expanding trans rights. Several years ago, the British press barely covered the trans community – and when it did, many of the articles they published were positive. This has now changed. Coverage of trans people has risen dramatically, with an average of 154 articles about the trans community now published every single month since 2015. That’s over 13,000 articles focused on less than one per cent of Britain’s population. 

[stillnaomi]

remember that one time the security services defanged the the guardian newspaper?

On 20 July 2013, GCHQ officials entered The Guardian’s offices at King’s Cross in London, six weeks after the first Snowden-related article had been published.

At the request of the government and security services, Guardian deputy editor Paul Johnson, along with two others, spent three hours destroying the laptops containing the Snowden documents.

The Guardian staffers, according to one of the newspaper’s reporters, brought “angle-grinders, dremels – drills with revolving bits – and masks”. The reporter added, “The spy agency provided one piece of hi-tech equipment, a ‘degausser’, which destroys magnetic fields and erases data.”

Johnson claims that the destruction of the computers was “purely a symbolic act”, adding that “the government and GCHQ knew, because we had told them, that the material had been taken to the US to be shared with the New York Times. The reporting would go on. The episode hadn’t changed anything.”

Yet the episode did change something. As the D-Notice Committee minutes for November 2013 outlined: “Towards the end of July [as the computers were being destroyed], The Guardian had begun to seek and accept D-Notice advice not to publish certain highly sensitive details and since then the dialogue [with the committee] had been reasonable and improving.”

The British security services had carried out more than a “symbolic act”. It was both a show of strength and a clear threat. The Guardian was then the only major newspaper that could be relied upon by whistleblowers in the US and British security bodies to receive and cover their exposures, a situation which posed a challenge to security agencies.

thank goodness for smaller operations, like Declassified UK, or we'd hear even less of what the state gets up to

[lilliankillthisman]

now that those posts seem to have run out of steam: if you thought there would be any noticeable consequences for trimming those trees then that isn't just you not understanding obscure laws about trees, it's you not understanding, like. Law. The whole thing.

[i-wear-the-cheese]

So it turns out the UK government has been breaking Meta's TOS to target ads based on characteristics which are protected like race and sexual orientation and even nationality. This includes deliberately targeting anti immigration ads to people they think live in countries where refugees are coming from using their sports team search data as a basis.

And this news comes a week after my white middle class university educated friend in the UK was served this ad:

"It matters more here"

What. The. Fuck.

The actual Motherland fucking batshit narrative here is HORRIFYING!!

[guardian-angle22]

this is a good omen for my trip. I’ve already made a friend!

[trexalicious]

The @guardian @guardiannews along with Editor-in-chief @katharineviner promote disinformation, foreign influence and interventionism in US policy and politics with their fundraiser AGAINST President Elect @realDonaldTrump. Doesn't Labour, Starmer and the UK have enough problems of their own without interfering AGAIN with the US election? #AlliesDon'tDoThis

(article starts after Holby story)

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

hello and welcome to the uk is a fucking hell country, part 284829494

[alt text:]

Anti-monarchists receive ‘intimidatory’ Home Office letter on new protest laws

Home Office claims timing of new powers, taking effect days before king’s coronation, is coincidental

Ben Quinn, Rajeev Syal and Vikram Dodd

Official warning letters have been sent to anti-monarchists planning peaceful protests at King Charles III’s coronation saying that new criminal offences to prevent disruption have been rushed into law.

Using tactics described by lawyers as “intimidatory”, the Home Office’s Police Powers Unit wrote to the campaign group Republic saying new powers had been brought forward to prevent “disruption at major sporting and cultural events”.

The new law, given royal assent by Charles on Tuesday, means that from Wednesday:

Protesters who block roads, airports and railways could face 12 months behind bars.

Anyone locking on to others, objects or buildings could go to prison for six months and face an unlimited fine.

Police will be able to head off disruption by stopping and searching protesters if they suspect they are setting out to cause chaos.

Jun Pang, a policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: “Key measures in the bill will come into force just days before the coronation of King Charles – a significant event in our country’s history that is bound to inspire a wider national conversation and public protests. At the same time, the government are using a statutory instrument to bring draconian measures that the House of Lords threw out of the bill back from the dead, once again evading scrutiny and accountability.

“It’s worrying to see the police handed so many new powers to restrict protest, especially before a major national event. When the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act came into force, the police repeatedly misused them – in part because they simply did not understand them. Similarly, when Queen Elizabeth died, we saw police acting in inappropriate and heavy-handed ways towards protesters that violated their rights.”

Shami Chakrabarti, the former shadow attorney general, said: “During the passage of this illiberal and headline-grabbing legislation, ministers admitted that the new offence of ‘locking on’ is so broad as to catch peaceful protesters who link arms in public.

“Suspicionless stop and search is notorious for racial disparity and it is staggering that more of these provisions have brought into force so soon after Louise Casey’s devastating report [on the Met police]. The home secretary can blast ‘ecowarriors’ but this legislation may be used against anti-poverty and Ukraine solidarity protesters too.”

A statement from the home secretary, Suella Braverman, said: “This legislation is the latest step the government has taken against protesters who use highly disruptive tactics to deliberately delay members of the public, often preventing them from getting to work and hospital, as well as missing loved ones’ funerals.

“The range of new offences and penalties match the seriousness of the threat guerrilla tactics pose to our infrastructure, taxpayers’ money and police time.”

full article here

so just to sum this up, peaceful protesting can now land you in prison for a year and you might face an unlimited fine which i believe is up to £5000, and police can now stop and search you if they believe youre "setting out to cause chaos"

its specifically being put in place right before charles' coronation, but these are now considered criminal offenses so theyre not exclusive to it.

you know, a country where you can be put in prison for a year for peaceful protesting really doesnt sound like a fucking democracy to me.

[carpe-mamilia]

Fuck the Tories.

[thexfridax]

Keanu Reeves at 60: from surfer dude to action hero, his 20 best films – ranked! | Keanu Reeves | The Guardian

[towlerknows]

Imagine the difference it would make to people’s lives if disabled bodies were normalised. If a tic were just a twinge on the face and not a sign of failure. That’s why Capaldi’s performance on Saturday matters. As the early evening sun shone over Worthy Farm, the crowd were communicating much more to the singer than his own lyrics. They were saying: “We want you exactly as you are.” In doing so, Glastonbury showed disabled people that acceptance is possible, at least for an hour.