I’ve been sitting inside Epstein’s art collection for months.
Not scrolling. Not skimming.
Sitting with it.
Because when something matters, you don’t rush it.
🧵
Based on verification of images, reports and comparative investigative analysis by the International Centre for Human Rights, to date approximately 43,000 people have been killed, 350,000 injured, 20,000 arrested and await possible execution.
“Taken together, ICHR believes that this body of evidence, methods, and data presents a clear picture of a systematic and organized campaign of repression and mass killing; one that may silence the streets in the short term, but will not resolve the underlying crisis.
Silence by the international community in the face of such violent repression and crimes against humanity will only enable the repetition and escalation of these atrocities.”
#IranMassacre
Full article here: https://t.co/hWOfLsaA96
Last night on @BBCNewsnight a message for when you’re standing up for the people of Iran and still have some culture war nonsense going on inside your head. #IranianRevolution2026
Woman of the Day cycling champion Eileen Sheridan, born OTD in 1923 in Coventry, smashed records in the 1940s and 1950s (men beaten by her claimed she’d cheated. She hadn’t) and held the End to End record - Land’s End to John O’Groats - for 36 years. Her 1,000-mile record time was not broken until 2002.
Eileen didn’t take up competitive cycling until after she married in 1942. Her husband soon realised that she was not only a better cyclist than him but whereas men in their cycling groups wilted late in their marathon rides, she found new strength.
By the end of 1949 she had won everything the sport could offer in the UK, including setting a 12-hour record of 237 miles, smashing the previous record by 17 miles and beating all but five of the men in the field. They refused to believe she had managed to go so far so quickly and asked her if she had cut a corner or two. In fact, she should have registered an even greater distance as she had gone off-course.
London-Holyhead, Edinburgh-London, London-Portsmouth-London and Land’s End-London - Eileen swept up every time record but she was merely building up for the most prestigious one of all: Land’s End-John O’Groats, 837 miles.
On Friday, 9 July 1954, followed by a Bedford flatbed lorry carrying a caravan and portable toilet which could only be accessed by going up a ladder, Eileen set off from Land’s End, having first broken-in multiple pairs of shoes.
470 miles and one change of wet clothes later, she stopped in Carlisle. Neither torrential rain nor high winds nor long climbs into a headwind up Bodmin Moor stopped her. The palms of her hands were so blistered, she could only grip the handlebars with her thumbs. Her feet ached, her legs were swollen and on the second night, she was hallucinating but she carried on.
"Would I be able to go on, I asked myself as I battled against the wind and rain up the cruel climb.”
Revived by soup, blackcurrant juice and chicken, Eileen set off again for the second leg: 260 miles to John O’Groats. She arrived late on Sunday, 11 July, setting a new women’s record: two days, 11 hours, and 7 minutes.
"No one will ever know what the sight of the John o’ Groats Hotel meant to me."
You’d think Eileen had earned a rest but no, her manager persuaded her to go for the 1,000 mile record. She had two hours’ kip and a full English, and set off to cycle another 130 miles. They were the hardest. She did it in twelve hours but she was hallucinating again and saw mermaids, giant glasses, and people urging her to turn the corner.
By the time Eileen competed in the inaugural women's Tour of Britain in 1955, she held 21 records but she’d had enough, although she took up kayaking and won the national 500m double kayak championship in 1956.
Why did she never qualify for the Olympics? Ah well, you see, there were no world championships for women then – they were not inaugurated until 1958 – and the Olympics was barred to female cyclists until 1984. Cycling was considered improper for women due to the alleged risk of their, erm, nether regions becoming unduly stimulated. A very male opinion, of course. I suppose it makes a change from wandering wombs.
Eileen died in 2023, aged 99.
“Where is a woman’s place? Is it in the home? Is it in industry or in sport? If I have shown in my life that it can be – and successfully so – in all three, then I am happy…I never felt like a champion.”