Over the last few weeks, I attended anti-immigrant marches and saw people pulled from their homes & workplaces while police stood by. I met Malawians who had been violently robbed by a gang who told them to go home and who were camped outside their consulate in the cold, waiting to be repatriated

Beaten, robbed and driven out: violent demonstrations target immigrants in South Africa

Thousands have fled amid months of anti-immigration protests as campaigners demand undocumented people leave the country

theguardian.com

Berlin was one of the places I found my queerness. Thinking of everyone there.

The dollar remains dominant, but more African banks are building systems for direct yuan payments. Angola’s BFA is the latest lender preparing to join China’s CIPS network.

China’s Yuan Payment System Gains Ground in Africa as Angola’s BFA Joins CIPS

By Miguel Gomes Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA) is joining China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) to meet customer demand for direct yuan settlement, a source at Angola's second-largest co...

chinaglobalsouth.com

I've been under a rock, because I hadn't heard of South African trans drag queen Tiara Skye before, but now I'm obsessed. Her vibe! Her glamour! Her Western Cape accent! www.instagram.com/p/DbLf_ECFVZ... This Vogue text interview with her is also great www.vogue.co.uk/article/tiar...

“I Just Kept Going Viral, Darling”: How Tiara Skye Became The Queen Of Soho

Drag queen and Soho street interviewer Tiara Skye opens up about her journey from small-town South Africa to becoming one of London’s most recognisable queer personalities.

vogue.co.uk

Two Ugandan women caught kissing, who spent five months in a tiny prison cell where they were beaten, have had their case dismissed. Now, they say they can't walk down the street without being harassed

‘We can’t even walk through the streets’: women arrested for kissing in public on life under Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ law

Wendy Faith and Alesi Diana Denise freed after five months in prison over allegations of engaging in same-sex activity

theguardian.com

I regret to inform you that getting up heinously early to do exercise does in fact make you less tired for the rest of the day.

The deadly production of asbestos linked Southern Africa - where it was mined - and Britain - where it was processed - but compensation for workers does not reflect this. Only £191k of the £127m in compensation has gone to claimants in Southern Africa: confrontpower.org/turner-and-n...

Negligible compensation for Turner & Newall’s asbestos-exposed African workforce | Confront

A trust compensating people who contracted asbestos diseases from British company Turner & Newall has seen few claimants from Africa, despite the company's significant presence in the region.

confrontpower.org

Just one example of the incredibly obstructive state of transgender healthcare in the UK right now

Mallory Moore@sexabolition.blog · 2w ago

Fun update to this little story: Despite my GP having an arrangement with the NHS GIC where the GIC recommends treatment and the GP provides prescriptions (i.e. a shared care agreement), I got told on the phone that I have "never had a shared care agreement in place".

Samantha Morton was extraordinary as Deborah Curtis in Control. One of my favourite films ever.

All The Right Movies@alltherightmovies.com · 2w ago

Christopher Nolan said he's only seen the crew applaud an actor on set twice in his career. This first was Heath Ledger as the Joker, the second was Samantha Morton as Circe in THE ODYSSEY.

Today, the Western Cape high court will issue its decision in Ramaphosa's impeachment case. He's asked for parliamentary impeachment proceedings to be paused, while the court considers whether the report that recommended his impeachment was lawful.

An interesting choice for South Africa's central bank to hold interest rates at 7%, given how conservative it usually is and inflation continuing to rise. June inflation was 5% year-on-year, the highest in two years and up from 4.5% in May.

George Pearkes@peark.es · 2w ago

SARB no hike - consensus was for 25 bps. Follows BSRI yesterday which also held against expectations.

Given Pete's history of reporting, this was an incredibly dumb thing for the CT Group lobbyists to have done. But it's good they did, because now we know what they're doing.

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 2w ago

In November, a lobbying firm approached me and asked to pay me to write articles critical of the Building Safety Regulator for newspapers. Filmed undercover, their staff admitted secretly paying reporters for copy in British newspapers friendly to their clients: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Two Russian men have been found guilty by an Angolan court of terrorism and spying. Prosecutors said they were planning a coup and helped to organise protests against fuel price hikes last year. Angola's security forces were accused of using live fire during the demonstrations, which 22 people died

Two Russian men jailed in Angola for terrorism and spying

The men were convicted over alleged plan to stage coup and organise deadly demonstrations over fuel prices last year

theguardian.com

Seeking fiction and narrative non-fiction recommendations! I've got a 2 week holiday coming up and was reminded, again, that Emily St John Mandel & Min Jin Lee's new novels aren't out until September. Baraba Demick & Michela Wrong are also faves. I've got a few ideas, but more are always good!

Good morning to Spain, Lamine Yamal and his brother Keyne

Guy Mowbray and Alan Shearer are so over the US

Wayne Rooney speaks for everyone.

It did not, in fact, come home 😭

Oh no

This is stressful

GORDON YOU BEAUTY

I am enjoying Messi not being handed free kicks on a plate.

Right. HWFG!

BREAKING: E. Jean Carroll just received Trump's $5 million — plus interest. Despite Trump's repeated attempts to block Carroll from receiving the money, $5,625,005.48 was disbursed to Carroll's legal team this week. www.ms.now/news/e-jean-...

E. Jean Carroll finally gets Trump’s $5 million — plus interest

Despite the president’s repeated attempts to block Carroll from receiving the money, $5,625,005.48 was disbursed to Carroll’s legal team this week.

ms.now

There are lots of stories about what a good person Sam Neill was. He was also fighting right up until the end against a controversial goldmine that would have been a few kms from his Otago vineyard, as detailed in this story by Aina Khan

‘That’ll be the end’: actor Sam Neill joins fight to stop controversial goldmine near his New Zealand vineyard

Neill says ‘one of the most beautiful and remote places in the world’ will be permanently changed if Bendigo-Ophir wins fast-track approval

theguardian.com

A few weeks ago I went to the KwaZulu Natal coast for this really cool story (and even got to go scuba diving!). South African filmmakers Pragna and Noel Kok are training other Africans to film underwater and above ground - and changing how wildlife documentaries are made.

The South African trailblazers seeking to change how wildlife documentaries are made

National Geographic explorers create dive lab after finding too few black film-makers telling African wildlife stories

theguardian.com

🎶 Turn around bright eyes 🎶

From Swansea clubs to worldwide fame: Bonnie Tyler – a life in pictures

The singer Bonnie Tyler, best known for her song Total Eclipse of the Heart, has died . We look back at her life, from her 1970s breakthrough to 80s hits, Eurovision and beyond

theguardian.com

The Fery-tale continues! (I think that was one of Andrew Castle's)

The UK is so unserious 😭

Scott Bryan@scottygb.bsky.social · 4w ago

BBC: “Why would an intergalactic space warrior want to stand as an MP in Clacton?” Count Binface: “Why not?”

The Privy Council in London is still Trinidad's final court of appeal. This week it's hearing a challenge to Trinidad's criminalisation of same-sex intimacy. The country's high court overturned the British colonial-era 'buggery' law in 2018, but the law was reinstated by its supreme court last year

‘A very angry gay man’: activist’s 11-year fight to overturn Trinidad’s homophobic laws reaches final hurdle

Privy council in London to decide on Jason Jones’s challenge to legislation against same-sex intimacy

theguardian.com