When Reform and the Tories form a coalition and get outstanding results at the next General Election, let's not act surprised, when there's front pages like this by @observeruk.bsky.social & @tortoisemedia.bsky.social -- marking a clear attempt by media to push the far-right into the mainstream.

Our story on how the ancient Mediterranean city of Alexandria is threatened by climate issues - notably sea level rise - is number 1 in @theguardian.com climate coverage.

Read it here: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Some photos I took on 35mm film in Al Max, Alexandria's fishermen village, also known as "the Venice of Egypt" 🇪🇬, for this story on how coastal communities are coping in sinking cities, for @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"I have had messages of solidarity from mothers in Gaza, from mothers in Syria, from people in a far worse predicament than mine."

Egyptian-British professor Laila Soueif, on Day 158 of her hunger strike (which has now gone partial), urging the UK and Egypt govts to #FreeAlaa, her son, from prison.

Palestinian-Israeli documentary film NO OTHER LAND, about Israel's ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank 🇵🇸, now has more Oscar wins than US distribution offers

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/m...

Two-page spread in the latest issue of TIME Magazine 🌟

I wrote about the true story behind Oscar-nominated Brazilian film I'M STILL HERE (Ainda Estou Aqui) -- how it's pushing people in Brazil to reckon with the horrors committed during the dictatorship and view parallels with the far-right today 🇧🇷

David Lynch in a 2023 BBC interview on why he continued referring to Angelo Badalamenti in the present tense after he had passed on.

One of the greatest filmmakers of the last half century.

www.bbc.com/culture/arti...

I spoke with one of the top filmmakers from Latin America today, Walter Salles, Golden Globes-winning actress Fernanda Torres, author Marcelo Paiva, and historian Luiz Felipe de Alencastro about the fine line between dictatorship and democracy in Brazil, the heroic tale of Eunice Paiva, and more.

A very graphic description here by a Syrian journalist

"My sister is on hunger strike to free her son Alaa Abd el-Fattah from jail in Egypt. We don’t want her to die."

Read Ahdaf Soueif's moving account of her sister's fight to #FreeAlaa, a British-Egyptian human rights activist, software developer, and writer.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Another evidence that so little has changed over time: here is an excerpt of Edward Said talking about Benjamin Netanyahu back in 1986.

Then Israeli ambassador to the UN, Netanyahu had refused to sit in the same room as Said just because of his Palestinian identity.

Edward Said's daughter Najla Said, an NYC-based actress, writer, and activist, told me: "I’ve been outspoken for a while, but particularly this past year, I think it’s meant a lot to people in a way that I didn’t quite understand."

I wrote this story & read this book as Israel's war on Gaza expands onto Lebanon, and as annexation of the West Bank accelerates.

It felt like everything yet nothing had changed since Said published this in 1979, yet it is essential to revisit it with this reissue by @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social

Today is the birthday of British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, and also 50 days since his mum Laila Soueif has been on hunger strike to tell the UK government to #FreeAlaa

Here is an excerpt from Alaa's brilliant 2021 essay "Palestine on my mind": www.madamasr.com/en/2021/09/1...

Testing this Blue Sky app with a poem and an image I took of a blue sky and birds flying over Beirut, Lebanon.

As Palestinian poet Marwan Makhoul wrote:

"In order for me to write poetry that isn't political,
I must listen to the birds
and in order to hear the birds
the warplanes must be silent"