Juan Avilés

Dawdling through life in awe of the magnificence of our world and amazed at the stupidity of so many who inhabit it. #UKLabour #CitizenOfTheWorld 🇬🇧🇪🇸🇪🇺

[Artur Nadolny @ArturNadol7566]

THE JOURNALIST WHO BROKE CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA WAS THANKED WITH A £1 MILLION LEGAL BILL

Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla exposed one of the biggest political scandals in modern British history. Cambridge Analytica. Brexit dark money. Possible Russian influence in UK democracy. The kind of journalism that wins Pulitzer nominations and keeps people in power very nervous.

So what happened next?

Arron Banks the man who made the biggest single political donation in UK history at around £9 million to Brexit campaigns, sued her personally. Not The @observer , which published her work for years. Not @TEDTalks, which hosted her talk. Her. Individually. A freelance journalist.

The suit was over one sentence in a 2019 TED Talk and a single tweet, in which she said Banks had lied about a secret relationship with the Russian government. Banks denied it. He had, however, admitted meeting Russian embassy officials multiple times more than he originally told a Parliamentary committee.

@guardian, her own publisher, declined to fund her defence.

She crowdfunded her legal costs from 29,000 members of the public.

She faced potential costs of up to £1 million. She eventually won on the main issues in the High Court in 2022, but lost on appeal on one narrow point.

She was ordered to pay Banks £35,000 in damages, issue an apology, and delete certain tweets. She was also hit with a costs order of over £1 million.

The woman who exposed how democracy gets bought had to beg the public for money to stay solvent while doing it.

Seventeen press freedom organisations called the case an attempt to intimidate and silence public interest journalism. The UK government eventually introduced anti-SLAPP legislation. Partly because of what happened to her.

In the UK, you can crowdfund a journalist's survival costs after she exposes the possible corruption of a referendum ..

.. Or you can fund the laws that protect journalists before they get financially destroyed.

We chose the first option.

[Give A Shit About Nature @giveashitnature]

France passed a law requiring solar panels on every parking lot larger than 1,500 square meters.

The law took effect in July 2023. Large lots over 10,000 square meters must be 50 percent covered by solar canopies by July 2026. Smaller lots have until 2028.

Exemptions exist for lots with genuine technical or environmental constraints, and for lots already shaded by trees.

France didn't just issue a mandate and walk away. The 2024 Finance Law introduced a Green Industry Tax Credit covering 25 to 40 percent of eligible solar investment costs.

Small businesses largely won't be impacted by the law. It more targets shopping centers, supermarkets, stadiums, and large commercial lots, not Le P'tit Bistrot.

Critics said businesses would just get rid of their parking lots. Carrefour, France's largest supermarket chain, is actually enthusiastically installing solar canopies across 350 stores, covering 180,000 parking spaces. It's expected to generate 450 gigawatt hours of power annually, enough to run the stores themselves, and it's using the canopies as a selling point - shaded parking makes stores more attractive to customers.

The projected energy output is expected to be up to 11 gigawatts, equivalent to roughly 10 nuclear reactors, without using a single additional acre of land.

The US has approximately 800 million parking spaces, most of them uncovered asphalt baking in direct sunlight. Should we do this too?

[NeilJ @NeilLamputt]

@DPJHodges And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks of staying up to watch England Mexico 😀

[Richard Burgon MP @RichardBurgon]

This Wednesday I’m leading a parliamentary debate on banning MPs’ second jobs.

Yesterday I invited Nigel Farage to come and defend his vast outside earnings. He's not yet replied.

But he has just registered £270,000 for 12 hours promoting a gold dealer.

That’s £22,500 an HOUR.

[SKI @skiistiredasf]

In 1912, Native American Olympian Jim Thorpe had his running shoes stolen the morning of the event. He found two mismatched shoes in the garbage, ran in them, and won two gold medals that very same day.

[Survation. @Survation]

NEW Survation poll of 10,024 people, 10 years after the Brexit referendum 🇬🇧

If a vote were held tomorrow:
55% would vote to Rejoin the EU vs 32% to stay out (13% undecided).

Among decided voters, that's 63% Rejoin vs 37% Leave.

🧵 1/5

https://t.co/N3tBBBPmjX

[Laura Richards BSc MSc MBPsS @thecrimeanalyst]

Oh Hi @jimmyfallon Here’s a reminder of the FACTS: In 2024 Conor McGregor was found legally responsible for the rape of Nikita Hand.

Nikita had to have a tampon surgically removed. A paramedic who examined her testified that she had never before seen someone with that intensity of bruising.  

The jury found McGregor liable after hearing a detailed examination of physical evidence, witness testimonies, and the impact of the rape on Hand’s life, including psychological and financial distress. Nikita was awarded damages.

McGregor appealed. He lost his final legal challenge to the Supreme Court of Ireland in December 2025, solidifying the jury’s verdict that he sexually assaulted Nikita Hand. The court denied his appeal on all grounds, allowing the initial High Court ruling—which ordered him to pay €248,000 in damages—to stand.

Shame on you Jimmy Fallon for platforming a known r@pist. What’s an insult to Nikita and all women 💀💣🤬

#JimmyFallon #ConorMcGregor #Accountability #CrimeAnalyst

[Paul Powlesland @paulpowlesland]

Victory for common sense (for now, at least)…

It’s a relief that @EnvAgency have finally realised that prosecuting volunteers for cleaning & restoring a river (that they had left to rot) without permission was not a good look, so they have dropped their charges in favour of a ‘warning’. Thank you for all your support & encouragement, from across the country, the political spectrum & around the world. I’m certain that the comms disaster suffered by the EA over this was crucial in getting them to begin to see sense at last.

This is, however, not the end of the story. The River Roding & its tributaries, like most rivers in the UK have still been abandoned & in parts left to die by the Environment Agency, with no plans to even put a stop to the serious environmental crimes taking place (like illegal sewage dumping), let alone to begin the process of restoration that the river so desperately needs.

I am therefore seeking a meeting with the EA’s Chief Executive to ask (1) that the EA instead use its prosecuting powers for good, to demand a detailed plan from Thames Water to fix all illegal sewage discharges in years, not decades & (2) that the EA turns this whole saga into a good outcome by using the River Roding as a pilot scheme for how the EA can work with, rather than against, grassroots river guardians, to provide the protection & restoration our rivers so desperately need.

I hope they will accept these very reasonable requests. But if not, I will continue to defy the EA, & will not be seeking their permission or authorisation to continue to care for & restore the river I love.

[NewsCord @newscord_org]

The Spectator just told its readers the evidence that Israel deliberately targeted children in Gaza "simply isn't there," and that the UN's 94-page report is "a doctor's guess."

Here is what is actually in the report, Jonathan Sacerdoti says is empty:

• Two independent forensic pathologists. CT scans. Forensic analysis in 15 of 17 cases.

• An audio ballistic analysis that identified the exact weapon and the firing distance.

• A 10-day-old baby was shot in the head while breastfeeding in his mother's tent in Nuseirat. Named. Dated. The bullet was analysed.

He calls this "unverified" with "nothing connecting the dots." The report cross-references every source and authenticates it with geolocation, metadata and forensic imaging.

This is not an opinion you're free to disagree with. These are false statements of fact about a public document. Under IPSO's Editors' Code, Clause 1 (Accuracy) applies to comment pieces too.

We've drafted the complaint. File it to IPSO in one click, in your name: https://t.co/dy6lbqo8qh

[Chris Smith @renewablesmiffy]

Just like the fossil fuel funders of his party want he literally made it up. Solar was the No.1 generation when The Telegraph wrote this draft article. Wind turbines rarely shut down due to high winds anyone who understands the technology knows this.

[Amnesty UK @AmnestyUK]

A United Nations’ independent commission has found that Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian children.

Commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar described the “systematic killing and harming of children” including since the so-called ceasefire was declared in October 2025.

On 5th December 2024, Amnesty released a report determining that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – a genocide that continues today.

Our report demonstrated that Israel carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, including children.

Children should never be the cost of conflict. Justice and accountability now.

[Helen Lewis @helenlewis]

This is deeply depressing, and also very helpful to actually corrupt politicians, who benefit from the assumption that "everyone is at it".

[NHS Million @NHSMillion]

Mike Graham is poking fun at NHS staff because we don’t have a million followers

Kind people of X, you know what to do…

[paintedspoken @paintedspoken]

@mtpennycook It would be really good, though, if you could sort out leasehold once & for all. The hesitations and the limbo are producing a whole category of junk property. This will not be contained within leasehold and sharehold -- its toxicity will spread through other areas.

[JOE @JOE_co_uk]

🇬🇧 🇪🇺 Today marks 10 years on from Brexit - would you want to rejoin the EU if given the choice?

[Nesrine Malik @NesrineMalik]

Gallingly on leave so no column today on Starmer. But in summary - this from 3 years ago.

[John McDonnell @johnmcdonnellMP]

The economic argument for a 3rd Runway falls apart on the government’s own figures. An expensive white elephant that will inevitably demand a public subsidy with the excessive costs falling on taxpayers shoulders. Just drop it & let’s move on.

[Dr Rahmeh Aladwan @doctor_rahmeh]

Wow. This case keeps getting worse.

They tried to get Claire Kerrison prosecuted for *religiously/racially aggravated harassment* of her MP and staff members for sending emails about the genocide in Gaza!

This was a serious charge that could have meant a jury trial in the Crown Court.

It carries a maximum sentence of 2 years in prison.

Peter Kyle MP's caseworker, Domino Moore, reported the emails as grossly offensive and 'anti-semitic'.

This led to Claire being charged with:

- Sending an indecent or grossly offensive message

AND

- Racially/religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress (Crime and Disorder Act 1998).

The aggravated charge was later withdrawn. Prosecutors likely realised it would be hard to prove 'hostility based on race/religion'— for emails criticising 'israel's' genocide in Gaza, sent to an MP known for strong pro-'israel' views.

This is how they use race/religion hate laws to silence anti-genocide and anti-'israel' British nationals.

Really glad the entire case was eventually dismissed. I hope Claire sues them all.

Source: @GregHadfield:
https://t.co/RuAbIsLtwF

[Dale Vince @DaleVince]

I’m supporting the PILC (Public Interest Law Centre) in holding a shady and in my view malign group to account - UK Lawyers for Israel.

Their speciality seems to be silencing people who speak up for Palestine - by intimidation. PILC argue that hiding behind barristers’ titles gives their threatening letters extra weight - piling pressure on campaigners and community groups, often without the resources to fight back, or even determine what’s right and what’s not. That’s the game. I got one of their infamous letters myself for flying the Palestinian flag at FGR, they accused me of racism, threatened further action in an ominous sign off -  and complained to the FA, the EFL, FIFA and UEFA in an attempt to cause maximum heat, attention and harm.… it’s now part of the evidence.

Difference is, I had the resources and the will to stand firm.

Many don’t.

Happy to help.

https://t.co/Q4Hb0paXs6