Brannavan Gnanalingam
brannavan.bsky.social
Brannavan Gnanalingam
@brannavan.bsky.social
Novelist and occasional reviewer
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
"A modern-day concentration camp ... People have been killed by the staff here." Irish citizen Seamus Culleton has been in ICE detention since September, despite having a valid work permit and his own business in the US.
February 10, 2026 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
Will NZ stand up against the illegal annexation of the West Bank?
February 9, 2026 at 6:16 PM
Post a banger that isn’t in English
youtu.be/yxcqbpZe5p8?...
February 9, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
Rights groups have raised concerns over conditions at the mine, which supplies about 15 percent of the world's coltan.
More than 200 killed in mine collapse in eastern DR Congo: Report
Rights groups have raised concerns over conditions at the mine, which supplies about 15 percent of the world's coltan.
www.aljazeera.com
January 31, 2026 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
Wrong fucking Home Alone 2 actor goddammit.
January 30, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
I cannot tell you how much doubt was consistently directed at the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and how much pressure was put on news organizations to couch those numbers as unreliable.

Biden himself said they were fabricated!

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
IDF accepts Gaza Health Ministry death toll of over 71,000 Palestinians killed in the war
Although Many International Experts Have Accepted the Health Ministry's Data as Reliable, and Even Conservative Relative to the True Death Toll, Israel Had Refused to Accept the Health Ministry's Coun...
www.haaretz.com
January 29, 2026 at 3:29 PM
Disgrasian alert
After Suella Braverman's defection, 12.5% of Reform UK MPs have been photographed stepping on a guide dog
January 26, 2026 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
I’m doing an AMA on Reddit (r/bookclub Kurangaituku) on Tuesday 27 Jan 10am NZ time (26 Jan 9pm GMT, 4pm EST) So if you have some questions about Kurangaituku, or what my current favourite cheese is head on over there.
Here’s me mugshot with the info.
January 24, 2026 at 12:03 AM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
The tragic loss of lives in NZ flooding events this week are climate change deaths. Media and govt are avoiding the topic.

Leaders and commentators must acknowledge the emerging reality of ordinary summer rainstorms carrying volumes of water akin to tropical cyclones of previous decades.
January 21, 2026 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
This phenomenon - this experience - is best articulated in @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social's Paradise Built in Hell.

When you are there, and you see an entire city of goddamn heroes around you, it is nothing short of a transcendent experience.
But when I asked an organizer what they wanted to see out of press coverage, they told me they wanted people to see the beautiful things they are building here, and not just the worst stories of the worst of ICE's crimes.

What people are doing here is beautiful. It's a tragic beauty, but a real one
January 22, 2026 at 6:18 AM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
We should stand by Iran's protesters as they fight a repressive theocracy.

We should also oppose yet another catastrophic Western intervention.

New column 👇

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Iran’s protesters need our support – not another western-intervention disaster | Owen Jones
Previous meddling has damaged the region, and once again the the US and Israel don’t have Iranians’ best interests at heart, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones
www.theguardian.com
January 13, 2026 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
take a second to really wrap your head around this.
January 13, 2026 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
The thing that always gets me about this kind of stuff is like, are we seriously expecting Palestinians to remain either neutral or positive towards Israel despite it literally killing them, destroying their culture and making it unsafe to live on their own land, at risk of being forced out of...
January 13, 2026 at 2:42 AM
One of the greats, RIP
Béla Tarr, 1955-2026 🤍
January 9, 2026 at 12:48 AM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
Every Trait Disqualifying ICE Agent From Previous Jobs Ideal For Current One https://theonion.com/every-trait-disqualifying-ice-agent-from-previous-jobs-ideal-for-current-one/
January 7, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
for real
January 4, 2026 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
the administration wants to frame this (bizarrely) as law enforcement. but if law enforcement conducted a raid for a suspect and killed 40 people, including an unknown number of unarmed civilians, it would be treated as a clear disaster like Waco.
NYT:

At least 40 people were killed in the US attack on Venezuela, including military personnel and civilians.
January 3, 2026 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
I want Aotearoa to at a minimum suspend 5-eyes and all other military connections to the US. Australia Canada and the Uk should do so too.
January 3, 2026 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
We're going to need a bigger Hague.
January 3, 2026 at 9:51 AM
Can’t wait to see who’ll get to lift the FIFA Peace Prize in 2026
January 2, 2026 at 12:37 AM
Awesome list of a whole bunch of international books I haven’t heard of, but will need to track down, and thank you to Pip for including Kartik Popat as one of them
December 29, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Acting in Home Alone 2 is obviously no barrier to political success
The "lost the rest of my barbershop quartet" guy thinks it's his politics that keep the roles away
December 29, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
Your regular reminder that NZ's immigration system is cruel and irrational and as bad as anything you might have read about regarding less "enlightened" countries; the only difference being it is enacted through bureaucratic means rather than physical ones.
December 23, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Brannavan Gnanalingam
bari weiss saw this and decided that she had to hide it from the american public
Guards began beating him. Beat him until he bled. Knocked his face into the wall, broke all his teeth. No access to outdoors, no contact with relatives.

Now describing US knowledge of CECOT's torture practices, followed by footage of Trump praising those practices.
December 22, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Lost opportunity of combining the Ministries for the Environment, Transport and Housing and calling it METH
December 15, 2025 at 11:04 PM