Marcus Rashford MBE
@MarcusRashford

I’m signing off with a feeling a pride tonight. The superstars of this nation lie in local communities. Even after taking the biggest hits you have wrapped your arms around your community to catch children as they fell. I really can’t thank you enough, you’re amazing ?️

BBC Question Time
@bbcquestiontime

“The Labour party might have found they got more supporters if the deputy leader hadn’t called one of the Conservative MPs scum.”

Nicky Morgan clashes with @bphillipsonMP over free school meals. On #bbcqt, 10:45pm, @bbcone

ComradeGeordie
@ComradeGeordie

Working class North east people voting Tory! What did you expect would happen? Ice cream and Jelly! Save your crocodile tears
😡

Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
Major U.S. media is now picking up on the subject of my recent thread. This is going to get very big very fast—*if* American journalists work through the dire, wide-ranging implications of what this story means. It's import goes *way* beyond a single comedy film.

*Way* beyond.

Ken Dilanian
@KenDilanianNBC

Rudy Giuliani caught in compromising position in new 'Borat' film https://nbcnews.com/pop-culture/movies/rudy-giuliani-caught-compromising-position-new-borat-film-n1244187
via @nbcnews

Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson

PS/ So far I'm not optimistic, with NBC reporting the video as merely a "prank" multiple times in its first article on the subject—and exculpating Giuliani from any knowledge that the actress he thought was a journalist was in the context of the movie playing an underage girl.

PS2/ The problems with this are legion. The intention of the filmmaker was to establish that top Trump agents would readily fall into sexually compromising "bribe" situations with people they believed to be agents of former Soviet Republics. This wasn't set up to be a mere prank.

PS3/ NBC is reporting on the "underage" component of this sting beyond its capacity to be journalistically responsible. It doesn't know what Giuliani was told about Bakalova's character before he went into the room with her. He can't be inculpated or exculpated on that score yet.

PS4/ So in the first U.S. report on this story, we have U.S. journalists playing cover for Team Trump in a way that we don't find in the British coverage from equally reputable media outlets. NBC has this as a prank that Giuliani definitely didn't think involved an underage girl.

PS5/ In fact, from a journalistic standpoint, it's unknown (maybe irrelevant) what the intent of the filmmaker was—and so the word "prank" is non-journalistic. The news content of this story relates to what Rudy Giuliani believed was going on at the time. That's all that matters.

PS6/ What Giuliani believed was going on at the time is a function of what was caught on tape *and* info he was given off-camera. So NBC News reporting what was said on-camera as the only information Giuliani had at the time is thoroughly irresponsible as a matter of journalism.

PS7/ This was a *bribery sting* that happened to be orchestrated by a filmmaker. Top Trump agent and lawyer Giuliani believed he was being bribed by a former Soviet republic—and went along with it. The open question is whether he was told off-camera his interviewer was underage.

PS8/ There's clearly a danger that US journalists will also leave out the context in which this bribery sting occurred: Giuliani acting as Trump's chief agent/intermediary with Kremlin agents, and facing a federal investigation for bribery—but also the prospect of a Trump pardon.

PS9/ The bribe component is present no matter what age Rudy Giuliani thought Bakalova was, or even if he never thought about it at all. He was being pumped for privileged access and info by a foreign national and appeared to believe there was a sexual component to the exchange.

PS10/ Rudy Giuliani is the President's lawyer—and Kremlin intermediary. He has access to the most sensitive info in the world. He can't go to a room and engage in sexual conduct with a foreign journalist he has just met who is pumping him for information. It simply cannot happen.

PS11/ That Giuliani's apparent sexual quid pro quo can be suddenly interrupted by a "father" informing him that the foreign national from a former Soviet republic he's engaged in a compromising scene with is "underage" is exactly what makes the situation so dangerous for America.

PS12/ Had the "father" in this scene been a Russian intelligence operative rather than a filmmaker, he would have *maintained* the lie that Bakalova was underage, and used the recording of the scene—which Giuliani didn't know about—as *blackmail* over the president's lawyer. See?

PS13/ So when NBC covers this as a prank—as though Giuliani knew that at the time when of course he didn't, and when in fact it was a bribery sting rather than a prank anyway—and when NBC reports without definitive knowledge what Giuliani believed about Bakalova, it's misleading.

PS14/ Never forget that this occurred at a time when Rudy Giuliani had been *thoroughly* briefed on the Russian intelligence threat, and had seen Russian intelligence previously use a "honey pot" maneuver (with Maria Butina) to try to seduce top Republicans in the United States.

PS15/ This is a terrifying security breach. Any journalist worth their salt would report it as such, but there's a real danger that what we'll get instead are reports that situate this as a prank in a comedy film rather than the national security-implicating bribery sting it was.

baberham lincoln
@budniks_mullet

That little cringe at the end...he knows its not going well #TrumpTownHall

[embedded GIF]

...
Downing Street are said to have been reviewing private polling which showed that Biden is on track to win by a landslide, leading to Johnson to increase communication with the Biden camp.

Johnson had spoken to Trump last week, wishing him well after his Covid-19 diagnosis, to the alarm of advisers who believe it could lead to Biden shunning the UK government if he enters the White House.

Dominic Raab is said to be conducting backroom talks with the Democrat team, along with the UK's ambassador to the US Karen Pierce.

Over recent months they have met with House speaker Nancy Pelosi, senator Chris Coons, and foreign policy advisors Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan.
...
A diplomatic source close to Biden also told the newspaper: "There will be a penalty for people who sucked up to Trump.”

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news/westminster-news/downing-street-fears-donald-trump-will-lose-election-2895306

The government has failed to account for £3bn spent on private contracts since the start of lockdown, new figures show

A legal action has been launched over the government’s failure to disclose details of its spending on contracts related to the pandemic, as it emerged that it has failed to account for £3bn spent on private contracts since the start of lockdown.

Three cross-party MPs and Good Law Project, a non-profit-making organisation, have filed a judicial review against the government for breaching the law and its own guidance and argue that there are mounting concerns over coronavirus procurement processes.

Green party MP, Caroline Lucas, Labour’s Debbie Abrahams and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran say that, despite the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) disclosing in September that at least £11bn worth of contracts have been awarded by the department since April, related predominantly to coronavirus, fresh analysis by data analysts Tussell shows that over £3bn worth of these contracts have not been made public.

The DHSC has said due diligence was carried out on all government contracts which have been awarded. The government has 21 days to respond to the judicial review proceedings.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/11/mps-launch-legal-action-against-uk-government-over-covid-contracts

Documents seen by Byline Times confirm that the Great Barrington Declaration advocating a ‘herd immunity’ approach to the COVID-19 pandemic has been sponsored by an institution embedded in a Koch-funded network that denies climate science while investing in polluting fossil fuel industries.

On 3 October 2020, the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), a libertarian free-market think-tank in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, hosted a private gathering of scientists, economists and journalists to discuss responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them was the distinguished Oxford University epidemiologist Professor Sunetra Gupta, among the most vocal proponents of a ‘herd immunity’ strategy.

The Great Barrington Declaration, after the town in which it was created, was drafted by Gupta with two other top US scientists, Professor Martin Kulldorff of Harvard University and Stanford Fellow Jay Bhattacharya. The Declaration itself – which calls for only the elderly and vulnerable to be quarantined while encouraging young people to contract the virus – was signed by an initial batch of some 35 scientists.
...
The claim that “thousands of scientists” are supporting the Barrington Declaration was reported far and wide by major media outlets from the BBC to the Daily Mail. But when I attempted to check how the signatory process works, I discovered that there was no vetting procedure in place for signatories – anybody could become a confirmed signatory of the Declaration and be categorised as a scientist or medic by falsifying entry information and ticking a box. By experimenting with the process myself, I was able to add myself as a signatory under the ‘Medical & Public Health Scientists’ category and received an automated email confirming this.

https://bylinetimes.com/2020/10/09/climate-science-denial-network-behind-great-barrington-declaration/

Coronavirus: 'Dr Johnny Bananas' and 'Dr Person Fakename' among medical signatories on herd immunity open letter
Other listed supporters include Dr Harold Shipman and Dominic Cummings of "Durham Univercity".

A widely-circulated open letter calling on governments to pursue herd immunity is counting homeopaths, therapists and fake names among its "medical" signatories, leading to accusations that it falsely represents scientific support for the controversial position.

The Great Barrington Declaration, a letter organised by prominent advocates of herd immunity, claims to have been signed by more than 15,000 scientists and medical practitioners, as well as more than 150,000 members of the general public.

Yet Sky News found dozens of fake names on the list of medical signatories, which anyone can add to if they tick a box and enter a name. These included Dr. I.P. Freely, Dr. Person Fakename and Dr. Johnny Bananas, who listed himself as a "Dr of Hard Sums".

https://news.sky.com/story/coronvairus-dr-johnny-bananas-and-dr-person-fakename-among-medical-signatories-on-herd-immunity-open-letter-12099947

Channel 4 News
@Channel4News

"They haven't thought it through, in terms of what it would feasibly mean."

Professor Devi Sridhar, of Edinburgh University, says the Great Barrington Declaration against blanket lockdown restrictions is not scientific or accurate.

[Twitter video]

Speaking to Tory activists, the Prime Minister said his party would use the fallout from the pandemic to 'short-circuit' the state and slash taxes

The Prime Minister has explosively described the deadly coronavirus pandemic as a "massive opportunity" that his party can take advantage of.

Boris Johnson said that the Conservatives would use the fall out of the crisis to "short-circuit" the country and impose a right-wing agenda of tax cuts and reduced support for the unemployed.

And he urged activists to keep the faith as he promised that he would slash taxes as soon as the Spring.

Speaking at a Q&A session at Conservative conference on Sunday, he said: "We have a massive opportunity now to use this unquestionable crisis, I mean it's been a huge thing for our country, to build back better."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-calls-coronavirus-pandemic-22790194