Correspondent @TheTimes. Previous: Hull, London, Beijing, Dubai, Cairo, Beirut. Contact: [email protected]. Opinions my own. Facts universal.
London
Joined February 2009
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Bloody hell. I'm glad I'm not Micky Burn, who was Guy Burgess's lover, met Hitler, won an MC, had gay sex in Colditz, saved Audrey Hepburn's life, and ran a communist mussel farm. But he sure knocks a modern Times correspondent's life into a cocked hat.
thetimes.com/uk/history/arti…
Richard Spencer retweeted
Egypt is weaponizing its media law to punish independent journalism and intensify one of its worst crackdowns on the press in years. It is long past time for Egypt to end this campaign against press freedom and allow independent media to report freely.
CPJ condemns the referral of @MadaMasr Editor-in-Chief Lina Attalah to trial for operating a website without a license that Egyptian authorities have themselves refused to grant for years. Egypt is weaponizing its media law to punish independent journalism and intensify one of its worst crackdowns on the press in years, which began with the arrest of six Matsdaash journalists. It is long past time for Egypt to end this campaign and allow independent media to report freely.
Sad to read of the death of Caryle Murphy, a fine and expert correspondent for many years - far more than I knew! - in the Gulf. RIP.
My dear friend Caryle Murphy. Such an amazing inspiring woman, and such a fun friend.
For the few years she lived in Riyadh, she was about ten minutes from my house, and we’d find any excuse to work together or just get together. So many adventures. The most mild being a search for a coffee shop open during the day in Ramadan, back when that was unheard of. So many uninhibited conversations. There was always so much to talk about.
She knew so much, had experienced so much, and was so down to earth. Such an open heart, and such fun to be around.
We kept in touch through all these years, meeting up in New York, sharing book, movie and show recommendations, and talking about life. Our last Zoom call was on 28 August. Even with her health issues, she’d taken part in the No Kings protests. That was Caryle.
She loved her family’s house in Cape Cod and time with her family. I’m so glad she had that at the end.
The world was such a better place with her in it.
I can’t do her justice. Read her obituary to see just how brilliant she was and what an extraordinary life she lived.
washingtonpost.com/obituarie…
The news site @MadaMasr has been a light in the darkness of Egyptian and Middle East journalism for the last decade, and @linaattalah the shining star at its helm. Frightening and worrying that the authorities should be coming after them now.
Mada Masr Editor-in-Chief Lina Attalah was referred to trial on Thursday on charges of establishing and managing a website without a license. Sessions will begin on October 27, according to lawyer Hassan al-Azhari, Mada Masr’s legal counsel, who described the “haste” in the trial referral, which came just hours after the interrogation closed, and its scheduling for the coming week as “unjustified urgency” given the absence of circumstances in the case that require rapid resolution. storage.googleapis.com/madam…
One of the world's greatest and bravest journalists, full stop. Solidarity.
In an absolutely egregious escalation against press freedom, Egyptian journalist and @MadaMasr Editor-in-Chief @Linaattalah has been referred to trial on charges of establishing, managing, and operating a website without a license. Her trial is set to begin this Tuesday, Oct 27.
Richard Spencer retweeted
🧵
On Friday 21st October 1966 one of the 116 children killed in the Aberfan disaster was a nine-year-old boy called Paul Jones.
When his body was recovered, they found a small wallet in his back pocket…
[all images©️ 📷 Viv Jones & @Channel4News]
Richard Spencer retweeted
Infuriating. Heidi Levine is one of the bravest and hardest working journalists I’ve ever worked with:
My friend Heidi Levine @Heidiphotos the great Washington Post photographer has been beaten up by settlers who attacked an olive harvest in the West Bank village of Abu Falah.
Photo of her recovering here xitter.cf/NTarnopolsky/status/21…
💥💥💥Photojournalist @HeidiPhotos is in a Ramallah hospital after being wounded by Israeli West Bank settlers while on the job.
@FPAIsPal
Richard Spencer retweeted
The Butcher of Bayda and Baniyas, Ali Kayali aka Mihraç Ural, who massacred hundreds of innocent children, women and men in an orgy of sectarian savagery, is finally in the custody of the Syrian government.
Richard Spencer retweeted
This is so important.
الاستخبارات العامة بالتعاون مع وزارة الداخلية تلقي القبض على "علي كيالي" المعروف بـِ"معراج أورال" أثناء محاولته الفرار عبر الحدود
#عاجل
Nothing and noone has an absolute right to exist. It's a meaningless concept as it means that in the years before I was born I was deprived of my rights. Same for states say in the ice age. This question is just a disingenuous way of asking whether Israel should cease to exist.
Richard Spencer retweeted
I really wish people would stop asking this question. It’s a dumb one that gives way to esoteric questions (“Does any country have a right to exist?”). Just ask what you’re trying to get at: do you think Israel SHOULD exist, and if not, what should exist in its place?
"Do you think that the state of Israel, as a safe home for Jews after the Holocaust and after the pogroms, has a right to exist?"
@bbcnickrobinson repeatedly asks Green Party leader Zack Polanski.
There's something quite Mao-like about late Trump. Reminds me of the famous alleged. quote about China being able to lose 50 million people here or there.
The president disturbingly suggested that seeing two American cities “taken out” would be a “small price to pay.”
www2.thedailybeast.com/trump…
Fascinated this week how social media/phone cameras have both massively improved reporting of major events and reduced trust (at least on that same social media), as someone who has been reporting breaking news for getting on for four decades.
There's a great example where people think there's some massive issue with the Flydubai incident being described as a "hijack" which seems to revolve entirely around confusion over what that word actually means.