Sam Meadows

Journalist. Wildlife. Conservation. Environment.
I write Wild Crimes, a newsletter about environmental crime. Link below.
Also for the Times, Guardian, BBC etc

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

🌳 SIX OVERLOOKED WILDLIFE STORIES THIS WEEK

South Africa's 'Rhino Baron' arrested. He had bred the world's largest herd of 2,000 animals, but had intended to sell the horns in China and other Asian markets.

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

A harsher critic might say it makes the obvious and correct points stylishly and convincingly and then gets lost when it attempts to do substance

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

Absolutely correct analysis.

[Sienna Rodgers @siennamarla]

TB essay is refreshingly well-written, and spot on both in diagnosing the problem and analysing the appeal of the unconventional politician, but I think the proposals are less useful – either wrong (eg we should fully support whatever mad adventure Trump has decided to go on) or, mostly, very, very vague

Still, would be great to see the Labour leadership contenders do the same exercise

[Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis]

Tony Blair is the living embodiment of what happens when political office becomes a down payment on future plunder. Ejected in 2007 by his own MPs as a massive liability, he bequeathed Britain a wild casino economy primed for the 2008 crash. And when the British economy crashed and burned, Mr Blair kept quiet while honing his skills at securing power by other means.

His first job, after his ejection from 10 Downing Street, was as the West’s Middle East envoy, with a supposed emphasis on Gaza. It took six painful years for Mr Blair’s tenure to prove a failure so profound it amounted to active complicity in Israel’s ethnic cleansing, in Palestinian erasure, and in paving the ground for the ongoing genocide.

Soon after, the Chilcot Inquiry demolished Blair’s Iraq lies, exposing him as a liar, a chancer and a war criminal responsible for countless corpses of Iraqis, but also of British soldiers.

Then came Blair’s real innovation: the financialisation of the ex-premiership itself. The Tony Blair Institute, fuelled by £130 million from Oracle's Larry Ellison—coincidentally, the largest individual donor to the Friends of the IDF—became a shadow state, brokering governance contracts for autocrats and companies like Palantir that weaponise AI to produce mega-death abroad and full-on surveillance of Western populations.

Now, in May 2026, this corporate fixer issues a 5700 word tantrum demanding that Labour embrace Trump even more than Starmer already has, denounce what is left of Labour’s betrayed Green New Deal, and trash the remnants of workers' rights. This is not the wisdom of an aging statesman. It is the frantic squirming of a man fearing his grip on oligarchic power might soon wane and whose entire post-10 Downing Street existence depends on preventing the many from ever reclaiming what the few have plundered.

https://t.co/1Onlpx9Nkh

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

This is not a "highly unusual" intervention from a former PM. It is an oft-seen intervention by an AI and fossil fuel lobbyist.

[Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar]

NEW: Tony Blair has accused Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting of putting Labour’s future at risk by abandoning the centre ground.

In highly unusual intervention for a past PM, he warns the party’s “almost infinite capacity for self-delusion” means it is likely to lose the next election.

In a scathing 5,700-word attack, Blair argued for government to crack down on welfare spending, abandon restrictions on oil & gas and smooth relations with Donald Trump 👇

https://t.co/L0DPIzLS67

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

@zdeborova This is actually a perfect point to make because not speeding while driving is just as easy as not making things up in academic work, but those who defend speeding also wrongly assume that everyone else is doing it therefore it's fine

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

If only there was a secret, third option called "vote for what you believe in"

[Liam Holman @Liam_Holman99]

Vote Green, get Reform

'oh we don't owe our vote to Labour' well which is more important to you? Keeping Reform out or punishing Labour?

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

Attention western policymakers: it is possible

[Hedgeye @Hedgeye]

🚨 China's Real Estate Market has erased all gains from the last 20 years

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

@sgodfrey My first season going regularly was the L2 relegation! Amazing it's taken this long for me to experience another!

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

Like all government schemes to supposedly help first time buyers, shared ownership was entirely focused on jacking up house prices for boomers and landlords and ensuring developer profits at the expense of young people trying to get on the housing ladder

[Jay @JibbaJabb]

Stories like this every other day now

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

Judging by the response to this on here there are genuinely people who believe that benefits claimants won't look for work because they can get cheap tickets to the Tower of London and, like, that is such a stupid thing to suggest that I don't even know how to process it

[Michael Simmons @Simmons__]

Is this fair?

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

@flameosumeet "People want the same 10 countries to host it." This is exactly what's happening here, The US hosted in 1994. Mexico have hosted twice! MetLife is fine and I get your point about creating moments, but your other argument makes no sense

[Ally Fogg @AllyFogg]

I’d question why ‘drunk’ is in quote marks here, but ‘patriot’ is not.

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

@KieranMaguire We got promoted the year before the new Sky TV deal. Is that comparison between L1 and Champ for broadcast money comparing like-for-like, or what Oxford made from TV in L1 compared to the following season in the Champ?

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

@GeorgeElek Impossible to properly judge a striker in our team this season tbh

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

@EmlynBegley Sad to think how the past, roughly, 14 months have basically torn out the identity and positive feeling the club had built since the MApp years. The Champ is obviously tough and losing games does build up negativity, but some bad decisions have been made in my opinion

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

@whippletom Genuine question: why is that important? The richest person in the world could believe that inequality is a bad thing. Would it undermine Polanski's point if he was in one of those 50 families?

[Dan Neidle @DanNeidle]

It’s just wrong that any nutter can file a libel claim, with no real basis at all, and that lands the defendant with £20k+ costs (which they’ll likely never recover)

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

@GeorgeDugdale The keeper would never have got there after that, isn't there something in the rules about that? Might have misremembered

[Sam Meadows @BySamMeadows]

@Iberia_en I travelled from Buenos Aires to London on December 15 and my bag is still missing. I've called every day and been given different answers. Please help find it.