Tonia 🇬🇭🏳️‍🌈🇵🇸🇸🇩🇨🇩

Breast & General Radiology SpR. FRCR positive. Radbytes education fellow. Merseyside Patients not passports organiser. Free Palestine, Congo and Sudan.

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

The government has until December to decide whether to pull the NHS out of its £330m contract with Palantir - a US spy-tech firm that has facilitated genocide in Gaza.

Andy Burnham needs to pick a side. We have picked ours.

[susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى @susanabulhawa]

Below is the statement by @macklemore in response to being removed from Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour. Read it in its entirety, because it's a masterclass in class, the primacy of integrity, and having the courage of one's convictions. [also, @edsheeran being "apolitical" in a moment of genocide is disgusting. Throwing his friend under the bus to appease zionists is gross too.]:

I’m not sure how to start this. So I’m going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from the Loop Tour.

But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.

The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced, and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don’t lose sight of that.

Ed is my friend. I’ve known him for 13 years. We’ve shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I’ve grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we’ve had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I’m writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can’t change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

Ed was in a fucked up position. He knew it. His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before. He told me that the words “Free Palestine” and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to al to of people he spoke with. I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn’t get past his public facing, “I don’t take sides.”

And I get why people don’t. Taking a side can cost you. Money, brand deals, sponsorships, festivals, private shows, relationships and access. I’ve lost all of those things. But there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed. When one side has the bombs and bottomless financial and military support from America, refusing to take a side doesn’t leave you in the middle.

What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I’m sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, “Free Palestine” becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, which Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that’s why this time it became so important to silence me.

One of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that's exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.

I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed. Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door is always open to continuing that conversation.

When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic: لا شكر على واجب.

"La shura ala wajeb." There's no thanks [needed] for a duty.

That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.

Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people being displaced, starved and killed while the world debates which words we are allowed to use to describe it, how those words make us feel, and whether our discomfort matters more than the people living through a genocide.

I didn't need 10 shows from Ed. I needed 2. Two chances to stand up in front of 90,000 people and say the words that somehow became too dangerous to say.

Free Palestine.

But if those words cost me the rage, while turning the conversation back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I've ever been on.

[Louella Vaughan @DrLKVaughan]

Just reading over the new rules on IG, as circulated in letter from Jim Mackey.

It is entirely appropriate to reiterate that patient records should be ONLY accessed for work-relate purposes. But the new rules are draconian and restrict the types of reasons doctors often do
1/

[Nima Tavallaey Roodsari @NimaTavRood]

So far at the 2026 FIFA Epstein Cup before a ball kicked:
- Senegal & Uzbekistan squads treated like criminals upon arrival given full cavity searches;
- Africa’s best referee sent back to Somalia despite having a diplomatic passport;
- Iraq team photographer sent back despite valid visa;
- AIPS (international sport journalist association) calling on FIFA to sort out unacceptable visa issues of African & Iranian journalists;
- 90% of Moroccan fans with tickets denied entry
- 14 members of Iran backroom staff denied visas

Not a word from Gianni ”today I feel black/gay/disabled etc” Infantino.

[Kehinde Andrews @kehinde_andrews]

Birmingham City University urged not to axe Black Studies MA and target 5 Black members of staff for redundancy. “In the US there is an attack on Black intellectual thought, in the UK there is so little in higher ed that the problem is erasure" https://t.co/nLpUu1vEB3

[Jean Jacques Dessalines 🇭🇹🇵🇸🇳🇪🇲🇱🇧🇫🇨🇺 @JeanJacquesDes7]

Clara Mattei demonstrates how Marxist critique can calmly dismantle liberal/capitalist assumptions with intellectual rigor, responding not with anger but with patience and clarity that exposes the limits of a narrowly formed worldview.

Radical_ideas_

[Tonia 🇬🇭🏳️‍🌈🇵🇸🇸🇩🇨🇩 @tforjoe]

@RobLaurensonD4P @alistairsteel @LittlePersonDoc Very true and fully agree. I should have added context to my question, it was based on the use of software like Palantir’s for “waiting list reduction” and so was wondering if this was in use here. The patient here has seriously been let down by the tertiary service.

[Tonia 🇬🇭🏳️‍🌈🇵🇸🇸🇩🇨🇩 @tforjoe]

@RobLaurensonD4P @alistairsteel @LittlePersonDoc Hi Robert, do you know if it was a software responsible for the decisions and if so which one?

[GMB London Region @GMBLondonRegion]

BMA staff have announced strike dates of 27-28 March and 6-7 April, the latter coinciding with the start of the resident doctors’ strike, after the BMA offered its own staff a 2.75% pay rise.

That’s lower than the 3.5% recommended for resident doctors, which the BMA itself described as a ‘crushing blow.’

2.75%, presumably also a crushing blow, per the BMA.

[Tonia 🇬🇭🏳️‍🌈🇵🇸🇸🇩🇨🇩 @tforjoe]

Sign the Patients Not Passports Merseyside Open Letter: End migrant charges for care in our hospitals! https://t.co/kyV3kZ21wb

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am a diplomatic aide in the Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

My job is logistics. When two countries that cannot speak to each other need to speak to each other, I book the rooms. I prepare the briefing materials. I make sure the water glasses are the right distance apart. You would be surprised how much of diplomacy is water glasses. Too close and it feels informal. Too far and it feels like a tribunal. I have a chart.

We had a very good month.

Since January, Oman has been mediating indirect talks between the United States and Iran on Iran's nuclear program. The talks were held in Muscat and in Geneva. The Americans would sit in one room. The Iranians would sit in another room. I would walk between them. My Fitbit says I averaged fourteen thousand steps on negotiation days. The hallway between the two rooms at the Royal Opera House conference center is forty-seven meters. I walked it two hundred and twelve times in February. This is good for my cardiovascular health. It was less good for my knees. Both are in the service of peace.

By mid-February, we had something.

Iran agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium. Not reduced stockpiling. Zero. They agreed to down-blend existing stockpiles to the lowest possible level. They agreed to convert them into irreversible fuel. They agreed to full IAEA verification with potential US inspector access. They agreed, in the Foreign Minister's phrase, to "never, ever" possess nuclear material for a bomb. I have worked in diplomacy for seven years. I have never seen a country agree to this many things this quickly. I made a spreadsheet of the concessions. It had fourteen rows. I color-coded it. Green for confirmed. Yellow for pending. By February 21 the spreadsheet was entirely green. I printed it. It is on my desk in Muscat. It is still green.

That phrase took eleven days. "Never, ever." The Iranians initially offered "not seek to." The Americans wanted "will not under any circumstances." We landed on "never, ever" at 2:14 AM on a Tuesday in Muscat. I typed the final version myself. I used Times New Roman because Geneva prefers it. The document was fourteen pages. I was proud of every comma.

Here is what they said, in the order they said it.

February 24: "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity." — The Foreign Minister, private briefing to Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors. I prepared the slide deck. Slide 14 was the implementation timeline. Slide 15 was the signing ceremony logistics. I had reserved the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Room XX. It seats four hundred. We discussed pen brands for the signing. The Iranians preferred Montblanc. The Americans had no preference. I ordered twelve Montblanc Meisterstucks at six hundred and thirty dollars each. They arrive on Tuesday.

February 27, 8:30 AM EST: "The deal is within our reach." — The Foreign Minister, CBS Face the Nation. He sat across from Margaret Brennan. He said broad political terms could be agreed "tomorrow" with ninety days for technical implementation in Vienna. He said, and I wrote this line for the briefing card he carried in his breast pocket: "If we just allow diplomacy the space it needs." He praised the American envoys by name. Steve Witkoff. Jared Kushner. He said both had been constructive.

I watched from the Four Seasons Georgetown. The minibar had cashews. I ate the cashews. They were nineteen dollars. The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten. But it was a good morning and we were within our reach.

February 27, 2:00 PM EST: Meeting with Vice President Vance, Washington. The Foreign Minister presented our progress. Zero stockpiling. Full verification. Irreversible conversion. "Never, ever." The Vice President used the word "encouraging." His aide took notes on an iPad. The aide did not make eye contact for the last nine minutes of the meeting. I noticed this. Noticing things is the only part of my job that is not water glasses.

February 27, 4:00 PM EST: "Not happy with the pace." — President Trump, to reporters.

Not happy with the pace.

We had achieved zero stockpiling. Full IAEA verification. Irreversible fuel conversion. Inspector access. And the phrase "never, ever," which took eleven days and cost me two hundred and twelve trips down a forty-seven-meter hallway.

Every American president since Carter has failed to get Iran to agree to this. Forty-five years.

Not happy with the pace.

February 27, 9:47 PM EST: The Foreign Minister's flight departs Dulles for Muscat. I am in the seat behind him. He is reviewing Slide 14 on his laptop. The implementation timeline. Vienna technical sessions. The signing ceremony. The pens.

I fall asleep over the Atlantic. I dream about water glasses.

February 28, 6:00 AM GST: I wake up to push notifications.

February 28: "The United States has begun major combat operations in Iran." — President Trump.

Operation Epic Fury. Coordinated airstrikes. The United States and Israel. Tehran. Isfahan. Qom. Karaj. Kermanshah. Nuclear facilities. IRGC bases. Sites near the Supreme Leader's office. Israel called their half Operation Roaring Lion. Someone in both governments spent time choosing these names. Epic Fury. Roaring Lion. I spent eleven days on "never, ever." They spent it on branding. The President said Iran had "rejected American calls to halt its nuclear weapons production."

Rejected.

Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling. Iran had agreed to full verification. Iran had agreed to "never, ever." Iran had agreed to everything in a fourteen-page document that I typed in Times New Roman.

The President said they rejected it.

I do not know which document the President was reading. I know which one I typed.

February 28, 18:45 UTC: Iran internet connectivity: four percent. — NetBlocks, confirmed by Cloudflare. Ninety-six percent of a country went dark. You cannot negotiate with a country at four percent connectivity. You cannot negotiate with a country that is being struck. You cannot negotiate. This is not a political opinion. This is a logistics assessment.

February 28: The governor of Minab reported forty girls killed at an elementary school.

I do not have logistics for that. There is no slide for that. The water glass chart does not cover that.

February 28: Lockheed Martin: up. Northrop Grumman: up. RTX: up. Dow futures: down six hundred and twenty-two points. Gold: five thousand two hundred and ninety-six dollars. An analyst at AInvest published a note titled "Iran Strikes: Tactical Plays." The note recommended positions in oil, defense stocks, and gold.

The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten was nineteen dollars. The most expensive pen I have ever ordered was six hundred and thirty dollars. The math suggests I have been working in the wrong industry. Defense stocks do not require water glasses. Defense stocks do not require eleven days. Defense stocks require one morning.

February 28: Israel closed its airspace and its schools. Iran launched retaliatory missiles toward US bases in the Gulf. The Supreme Leader promised a "crushing response." Israel's defense minister declared a permanent state of emergency. Everyone is using words I recognize in an order I do not. I recognize "permanent." I recognize "emergency." I do not recognize them next to each other. In diplomacy, nothing is permanent and everything is an emergency. In war it is the reverse.

February 28: The Foreign Minister has not made a public statement.

The briefing card is still in his breast pocket. It still says "within our reach."

[Casual Geopolitics @Casualgeopol]

If you’re a user of AI, delete GPT.

Anthropic turned down a deal to allow their models to be used by the government for surveillance and autonomous weapons.

Open AI took the deal.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Lady in blue, "Will student loans be the next misselling scandal?" #BBCQT

Oli Dugmore, "My three year course, £9,000 a year for the tuition, on top of that a maintenance loan, I left uni with £37,500 of debt"

"From the day I was charged RPI interest"

"Since I went to uni in 2012, the amount of interest I have accrued is £32,000"

"Was it missold to me when I was told it would cost me £9,000 a year? Yes"

"On top of that its a regressive system"

"If you're wealthy enough to pay the fees up front, you don't get charged interest - if you're rich enough you don't pay the same as me"

"The government changed the terms of the agreement, I call that loan sharking"

Fiona Bruce, "How else would you pay for university?"

Oli Dugmore, "How did you guys pay for it?"

"The state paid for it, didn't they?"

Fiona Bruce, "They did"

Oli Dugmore, "Good enough for you, good enough for me?"

[Tonia 🇬🇭🏳️‍🌈🇵🇸🇸🇩🇨🇩 @tforjoe]

https://t.co/pUjlcyCZ74

[Nelson Amenya @amenya_nelson]

BREAKING: Kenya becomes the first African country to sign the controversial US Health MoUs earning 1.6B in funds disbursed through the next 5 years in exchange for health care data & Specimens for the next 25 years.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hints at 50 more countries signing these deals.

[Good Law Project @GoodLawProject]

Wes Streeting insists that NHS health records are not for sale.

But handing them to a company like Palantir shatters any chance of public trust ⬇️
https://t.co/nET3kHD2bs

[boycat @boycatapp]

If you don't know what's happening in sudan, well we got you covered:

[Tonia 🇬🇭🏳️‍🌈🇵🇸🇸🇩🇨🇩 @tforjoe]

@wunpini_fm @RutgersUPress This looks amazing! First of all congratulations ❤️ I was just wondering before buying from the university press that you benefit from the sales and aren’t subject to some of the problematic restrictions academic publishers impose!
Don’t know much about Rutgers press.

[Typical African @Joe__Bassey]

Sudan 🇸🇩 is experiencing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, a proxy war and genocide that has killed thousands and displaced millions, yet the world remains silent.