Alex Varley-Winter

Investigative Reporting, freelance & for @TransparencyTF | Views own | Email [email protected]

[Alex Varley-Winter @avwinter]

My future soil + robots piece has now moved to Footprint Mag @footprint_mag https://t.co/ZL3KDMXc08 👣 🌱 🤖

[Alex Varley-Winter @avwinter]

I wrote this piece on soil microbiologists & the farms of the future for @sustain_act

https://t.co/Wkhp1q0t2j

Quotes: Dr Ute Skiba of the CEH; @SoilAssociation ; @Rothamsted’s Prof Andy Neal ; @GreenfieldBots’ Clint Brauer & @Forest_Research Dr Sirwan Yamulki

#climatechange

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Former CEO of Pennon, owner of South West Water, got £270,000 bonus after parasite outbreak that contaminated drinking water.

SWW dumps sewage in rivers, fleeces customers, neglects investment.

OFWAT didn't stop the bonus.

Let customers vote on exec pay
https://t.co/odlPmzeQ93

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Santander CEO attacks UK bank taxes.

Can't recall banks refusing bailouts, attacking profiteering.

In the last 3 years UK govt paid £100bn+ to banks as interest on central bank reserves, a policy that began in 2009. EU curtailed in 2023. UK ought to.
https://t.co/iRo2qyIRKE

[Sally Hayden @sallyhayd]

Nabatieh yesterday, a Lebanese city under evacuation orders, where we spent time with first responders who continue risking their lives to save others. Locals say the Israeli army has effectively made Nabatieh a no-go zone.
Report coming soon, @IrishTimes

[Alex Varley-Winter @avwinter]

@asianmomriot @MagsSnik @LBC Yes this man has done a lot of wrong as he also has a conviction for stalking his adult step daughter (source: Guardian).

Very silly people exaggerate to imply that a polite range of flirtatious behaviour would be penalised. The CPS description is clear:

https://t.co/OsbAX7pwN6

[Transparency Task Force @TransparencyTF]

🗞️ LATEST ARTICLES FROM FINCRIME CENTRAL

●     Australian man accused of creating over 2,500 shell companies 👇

https://t.co/X8NIvT2p0Q

●     Wise Europe investigated for half a billion euros in suspicious transactions 👇

https://t.co/BQUQqZDRel

●     BaFin fines AIL Leasing München AG €75,00 over AML failures 👇

https://t.co/o6OXQhQK5P

●     Latest FINTRAC’s report alerts on gambling and mule networks 👇

https://t.co/ogb3k7HY7I

[Sally Hayden @sallyhayd]

Honestly today was a bit heartbreaking, talking to displaced people living in Ramlet el Baida & elsewhere about the horrific circumstances so many are living in. More than one mil remain displaced in Lebanon. Here is a quick video showing where some now stay (in the beating sun)

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

Crazy that this is getting barely any coverage. This year’s European Press Prize was just awarded to an investigative report by the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. It is entitled “What the Wounds Tell” and in it the journalists Maud Effting and Willem Feenstra document the cases of 114 children in Gaza under the age of 15 who were struck by a single bullet to the head or chest. Almost all of them died or were left severely disabled. They chose to document only the cases of boys and girls under the age of 15 (though often much younger: aged 3, 4 or 7) because these are children who can be immediately identified as such. “A single bullet in these parts of the body is a clear indication that these children were deliberately targeted“, the two journalists write.

This is the article: https://t.co/YkZrpqBWBQ

[Transparency Task Force @TransparencyTF]

🗞️ City of London transparency survey launched 👇

https://t.co/HwR0IVlRRQ

[Alex Varley-Winter @avwinter]

@manus_carlisle @TheLawMap … we humans should probably all be keeping a bit of an eye on the PFAS issue

https://t.co/cBcwtaaP9g

https://t.co/7OF9LNAx5U

[Alex Varley-Winter @avwinter]

@IanRDHolmes @labourlewis I saw one charity that aims to take aid strictly woman-to-woman without cuts to middle men. Would that be a partial solution? I suppose there is a risk that women *may* be armed in Hamas resistance but I would guess far fewer than men… I would be tempted to think that may work.

[Justin Cash @Justin_Cash_1]

Scoop: Linklaters hunts expert witnesses as Hargreaves prepares to defend Woodford claims

https://t.co/FUre7gHAdJ

[Natalie Bennett @natalieben]

Delighted to be doing this - here's the survey: https://t.co/hOv9AtY43g

[Alex Varley-Winter @avwinter]

@LelandWarrior @jackcoder0 @Daily__wisdom_ I’ve seen this paper tweeted about before, but I am confused by the authors being labelled economists. Their maths/science/finance background doesn’t make their findings any less worth discussing, in my view. 😉

The authors:

https://t.co/hSVNwgmkBk

https://t.co/PkSSf56Qaq

[Transparency Task Force @TransparencyTF]

📢 We are pleased to share a press statement regarding an important new project that the APPG on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services has embarked on.

It’s about looking into the City of London Corporation; and very importantly it’s about inviting you to have your say, via a short and simple survey.

The project examines whether the City of London Corporation should be drastically reformed or even abolished altogether. Perhaps reform or abolition could lead to a significant reshaping of our financial services landscape, for all the good reasons given in the statement.

This initiative is being led by Green Party member of the House of Lords Natalie Bennett @natalieben .

And if you do want to take the opportunity to have your voice heard please complete the online survey, which is available for you here; 👇

https://t.co/iGJe7zQIyL

we won’t be publishing respondents; email addresses or names, so please do take this opportunity to share what you think.

Why is this issue so relevant to TTF members?

Because the project is all about exploring whether the City of London Corporation is as fair, democratic and transparent as it should be; and as you may already know the City of London Corporation has a significant degree of influence over how the financial industry is run - the press statement explains the ‘interesting’ role of the City Remembrancer, whose job is to influence financial services legislation.

The full statement is available for you here 👇

https://t.co/EdNH72kzPu

[Transparency Task Force @TransparencyTF]

🗞️  LATEST ARTICLES FROM FINCRIME CENTRAL 👇

●     FCA orders extra 499 day sentence for convicted money launderer 👇

https://t.co/tJncnLN3wx

● New Zealand regulatory oversight and the Worldclear payment service provider scandal 👇

https://t.co/gkHzRCeRbY

● The 24-karat laundromat: Italy seizes €1.3 million in assets and gold 👇

https://t.co/DhZYaFMVGZ

● Tabcorp faces AUSTRAC investigation over serious AML compliance failures 👇

https://t.co/6qipTZc4C8

[Alex Varley-Winter @avwinter]

Pollution brings easy pickings for some! From Cut Carbon Not Forests newsletter:

“Independent analysis from Ember shows Drax’s UK biomass operations received £1 billion in “low-carbon” subsidies in 2025 — a record payday in the final year of the current scheme. 

In 2025, Drax burned nearly 8 million tonnes of wood.”

This ‘low carbon’ accounting trick “hides real, immediate CO2 emissions and hands biomass generators an unfair advantage over truly clean energy.”

[Alex Varley-Winter @avwinter]

@DarkchildJones @bil_sheeba @King0243_PJC @AndyPeacock999 My bet is the buck stops with big tech. AI-generated ‘news’ to stir up outrage, grifters in comment sections pushing this motley crew as a solution. Due to being flush with opaque money like this, they can probably pay for it. Just a theory, but I find it manipulative.

[Alex Varley-Winter @avwinter]

Quotes from Tom Levinson’s article & it is full of context, which by far the most startled me on payment of ‘extremist’ civilian “contractors” to demolish Lebanese houses because no-one else is willing to do that apparently… That’s a job?! *Expletives*.

[Sally Hayden @sallyhayd]

""It used to be necessary to 'incriminate' a structure to destroy it, to find weapons in it, to prove the presence of terrorists. But today, they just destroy, even schools, clinics; the only thing we didn't touch was the cemetery."

[Richard Holmes 🕵🏻‍♂️ @Richard_AHolmes]

As war rages on in the Middle East, the government is cutting staff on the Iran crisis team.

Make it make sense.