Alastair Thompson Profile picture
Climate, Conflict, Politics, Africa. Editor https://t.co/b6HbxvlPDn (NZ) Reporting from France. https://t.co/LNVK0y9b2z #PoeticRevolution #DesertRain #NoMore
Aug 7, 2018 18 tweets 11 min read
Everything about this @ABC news report is fishy. It was rushed into publication on Friday Night shortly after the #Unity4J vigil was started. The video in the header is more than a year old & only today did they add the audio of the IV with Assange's lawyer. /1 The story itself is full of blatant misinformation which might as well have been written by the CIA or State Dept, the rebuttal from Assange's lawyer - filmed last week - was added today to the already published story so clumsily that it breaks the layout. /2
Aug 5, 2018 28 tweets 30 min read
NEXT UP ON #UNITY4J

Youtube superstar Jimmy Dore @jimmy_dore

Stream: unity4j.com/stream
Help out: unity4j.com/discord
#Unity4J "I support the 1st Amendment and Freedom of Speech. And I can't understand why the press are not also supporting @JulianAssange"- @jimmy_dore is now talking to @Suzi3D

Stream: unity4j.com/stream
Help out: unity4j.com/discord
#Unity4J
Jul 17, 2018 46 tweets 7 min read
Obama is addressing the world.... right now.... And he is talking about how real power is exercised in the world. /2
Jul 17, 2018 31 tweets 6 min read
Trump Putin Summit Hangover - The Morning After

THREAD >> Trump demanded this summit. It was his plan, took place against advice – especially the bit where he agreed to meet in private with Putin. And it ended as monumental own goal for both Russia and Trump.
Jul 15, 2018 19 tweets 8 min read
This is a lie. And @CNN's "exchange of fire" is also inaccurate. Israel bombed Gaza. Gaza retaliated. And now Israel is bombing some more.... "Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced a cease-fire late Saturday night following regional and international mediation efforts after the most serious and widespread flare-up between Israel and Palestinian fighters in Gaza since the 2014 war."  /14
Jul 12, 2018 12 tweets 4 min read
Trump's visit to the NATO summit over the past day has been a confusing affair. A typical Trumpian press conference held around midday today bears little relation to both reality, nor what happened at the summit. /1 After a series of bellicose tweets berating NATO members for not spending enough money on defence (many containing falsehoods) the summit began very badly with this on camera attack on Germany. /2
Jul 11, 2018 15 tweets 6 min read
Listening to coverage of Brett Kavanaugh's past, I decided to Google the judge and "Deep State" and out pops this article from Roger Stone on the odious website Infowars, warning Trump not to pick him. infowars.com/roger-stone-ka… /1 Roger Stone thinks Judge Brett Kavanaugh will betray the right, and cites the voting records of David Souter and John Roberts, appointed by the Georges Bush, and who he thinks served liberal interests rather than those of true conservatives. /2
Jul 10, 2018 6 tweets 4 min read
Its something of a miracle that the weather has been holding long enough to enable the #ThaiCaveRescue to take place. The monsoon season is settling in all around the mountains where the caves are. /1 These images show forecast rain fall over the next 18 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours in Thailand & the latest forecast. /2
Jul 10, 2018 9 tweets 3 min read
Trump has chosen his Supreme Court candidate with a view to creating conflict and controversy and mobilising his base. A very Stephen Miller choice. Trump won in 2016 with a large chunk of @GOP voters, and evangelicals holding their nose because he had an open SCOTUS seat and had promised to appoint an arch conservative. /2
Jul 9, 2018 29 tweets 10 min read
There is a detectable wry smile on @theresa_may's face as she thanks her departing Foreign and Brexit Secretarys' in a statement to a packed Westminster house. /1 Her statement on the Chequers Proposal is detailed, dense and nuanced - a bit like one of her set piece speeches, albeit with 90% less Cakeism. /2
Jul 9, 2018 19 tweets 11 min read
This points to No. 10 having made up its mind about the toxicity of @BorisJohnson. Which makes sense. His ability to fight proxy wars, betray colleagues, and barefacedly lie is hard to get past. But the appointment of @DominicRaab suggests she just blinked. /2
Jul 9, 2018 13 tweets 3 min read
What happens next:

Davis's departure almost certainly signals a @BorisJohnson leadership challenge.

But there's not enough time to go through the usual process, so Jacob Rees-Mogg will have to be given something to fall into line - before the coup comes together.

/1
If Boris succeeds in displacing May he will off to Brussels and blow up discussions. Boris's views on his own capacity as a deal maker being as delusional as Trump's. This will likely destroy any chance of a deal being delivered in time for European Parliamentary approval.

/2
Jul 8, 2018 8 tweets 5 min read
Forests in Siberia are burning at extraordinary rates, unheard of in at least 10,000 years. Current wildfires, which started in late June, have already burned roughly 538 square kilometres (133,000 acres) of forest in southern Siberia. sciencealert.com/nasa-images-ca… /1 The Siberian fires are releasing so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in a map of Asia they appear to rival the heart of industrial China. And clearly exceed the CO emissions of India and Europe. /2
Jul 8, 2018 25 tweets 9 min read
UK Labour's Trade Spokesman @BarryGardiner, after dismissing the May plan as being an unworkable fudge (which it is) proposes a "Mercosur" style co-decision making approach to trade agreements and regulartory alignment. /1 #SundayPolitics This in the context of earlier saying that not having a decision seat in the EU, and a policy taker would make the UK a "vassal state" (which it would). This is just a different version of the same fudge that he earlier said was unworkable. /2 #SundayPolitics
Jul 8, 2018 17 tweets 10 min read
LIVE NOW >> A talking vigil in support and solidarity with @wiikileaks founder Julian Assange >> unity4j.com/stream

I will be talking live at 6am GMT/NZT

started: 2pm GMT Saturday 7 July
finishes: 3am GMT Sunday 9 July

schedule >> unity4j.com
#Unity4J Promo Video prepared for the first Vigil. #Unity4J

Next up @Suzi3D interviews the legendary @raymcgovern
Jul 7, 2018 15 tweets 8 min read
An animation of the Heat Dome #HeatDome presently over the United States which is responsible for the heat wave. The dome appears to be pretty stationary and covering the entire U.S. land mass. /1 The animation shows a period from today till July 23 (a bit over a fortnight). And as you can see this Heat Dome is not forecast to depart. Below are images from the beginning and the end of the sequence. Today on the left, July 23 on the right. /2
Jul 6, 2018 17 tweets 10 min read
NZ was one of the only populated places on the planet yesterday where there were temperatures under 15 degrees celsius. This shit is not normal. (HT @cupoteacoast)
Jun 25, 2018 13 tweets 4 min read
“The Russians Play Hard”: Inside Russia’s Attempt to Hack 2018—And 2020 vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/i…

^^ This is a MUST READ. Hopefully it will help Washington D.C. politics wonks understand the scale of the vulnerability of elections infrastructure. /1 This for example is not a hypothetical scenario. We have known this happened since 2003. scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0310…

It even has a (albeit contested) wikipedia page >> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volusia_e… /2
Nov 4, 2017 45 tweets 12 min read
So there's a coup underway in Saudi Arabia?

So Jared Kushner goes on a secret mission to Saudi and days later this happens? Coincidence?

...From the inimitable @lrozen