I’m publishing this earlier than intended as I was unable to finish the other blog I was working on in time and it’s been three days since I updated this one.

Thursday 1 January

The New Year starts with the shocking news that deepfakes of Yanis Varoufakis are all over YouTube https://youtu.be/-4tjjGrUrVw?si=4eQTQ9n18ILR9LR8

Saturday 3 January

The US has launched an illegal assault on Venezuela, bombing military sites across the city of Caracas and kidnapping President Maduro and his wife. Trump belongs in a straitjacket, and the sycophants who allow him to get away with the most outrageous crimes need to answer for their cowardice 😠 Yes, I mean you Cur Starmer! Einstein warned us that it’s those who watch and do nothing who allow evil to prevail. But we’ve known what Starmer is for years!

Sunday 4 January

News of the US invasion of Venezuela is all over the internet this weekend, with even Gaza and Palestine Action hunger strikes on the back burner.

“We are going to run the country until such time that we can do a safe proper and judicious transition,” Trump said. “It has to be judicious, because that’s what we’re all about.”

Monday 5 January

I’ve built up a reputation for promoting petitions on various topics. For the first time I have found one where I’m compelled to say do not sign this petition! It’s an appeal to the oil companies who can expect to benefit to Trump’s Venezuelan oil grab to object to it, like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas

A major US objection to Trump’s invasion of Venezuela is that it’s illegal because not authorised by Congress, it doesn’t matter that it’s illegal under international law.

Trump challenged the EU to choose a side in his trade war with Canada, they chose Canada. Things really aren’t going Trump’s way, he should remember what he told Netenyahu: “You can’t fight the world.”

Tuesday 6 January

I just published my latest blog, I have another one almost finished and am ready to start a new one. This one will be ready for publication by the time I’ve shared them all 😀

Wednesday 7 January

January 3 was the legal deadline for the Department of Justice to submit its written justification for failing to publish in full more than five million documents from the Epstein files.

Donald Trump’s relationship with the paedophile was set to dominate the news cycle. Instead reports of the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro flooded the airwaves. Almost nobody mentioned the missed congressional deadline.

I was utterly gobsmacked to see Yvette Cooper reading from her script and parroting Trump’s absurd that a “peaceful and democratic transition” of power can start with the invasion of a sovereign nation and the abduction of it’s head of state. The interview with Jeremy Corbyn on Sky News is better described as an interrogation – “Just say what I want you to say then we can move on”.

Trump is pushing us closer to WWIII by seizing a Russian flagged oil tanker in the Atlantic, with UK assistance.

Friday 9 January

A report by Drop Site News that “Since the October ‘ceasefire,’ an average of five Palestinians have been killed every day” has been labelled as age-restricted content and age verification is required to read it. This is censorship gone mad!

Sunday 11 January

Acknowledging that my proposal to spend some of my inheritance on a visit to Scotland is quite impractical, a friend from Edinburgh has offered to come down and visit me 😊 Hopefully we’ll be able to co-ordinate with others with both the wish and the ability to visit me.

I’m rather concerned about the government proposal to ban X in the UK because of child abuse on Grok. Nigel Farage seems to think that’s acceptable as long as only paying subscribers can see the images. That’s clearly not good enough, but a total ban means I will lose contact with a lot of friends who are reluctant to switch to Bluesky. It’s the main reason I’ve retained my account will, I’ll be happy to see the back of it if more friends join me on Bluesky.

Monday 12 January

IThe Prime Minister’s spokesman told Byline Times that X’s creation of sexual deep fakes was “completely unacceptable” but did not commit to direct action against the company. Kemi Badenoch’s spokesman said “what is happening with those Grok deep fakes is absolutely disgusting, and there has to be something done to stop that.”However, he would not say what that something should be. 

I’ve just been given a reason for keeping track of all my donations, even they’re one offs. I just received two emails thanking me for my donations to a campaign in support of the NHS which was successful. Without this feedback I would have been unaware that I had donated twice. It’s a worthy cause and I’m pleased it was successful, but the second donation (for half the sum) could have been used for another cause.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is the latest to pull out of the Adelaide Writers’ Week after it’s cancellation of Palestinian writer @RandaAFattah in a Zionist effort to weaponize the Bondi Beach attack to silence Palestinians.

Tuesday 13 January

Four homeless men detained by ICE in Minneapolis were members of the Oglala Lakota Tribe. Tribal attorneys are trying to locate the men and secure their release.

Ofcom has launched a formal investigation under the Online Safety Act (OSA) to look into Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok after it produced a flood of sexual content manipulating images of women and children.

Minnesota and Idaho are suing the US government over the operation of ICE in those states.

Wednesday 14 January

I continue to get requests to donate to various causes, many of which I’m donating to already, or to undertake a challenge such as a half marathon. My York Walk in 2021 was a sufficient challenge for me, one follower remarked that he didn’t realise what a challenge it was until he saw the photos, I couldn’t do it again. I won’t ask anyone to donate to a cause unless i’m prepared to put my money where my mouth is, and usually not even then.

Yesterday, Elbit Systems lost its bid for a £2billion contract. Today, Heba Muraisi, Kamran Ahmed and Lewie C have ended their hunger strike. 

Thursday 15 January

Government has dropped plans for mandatory digital IDs.

Friday 16 January

President of Colombia Gustavo Petro: “Diplomacy has failed in Gaza.What we need now is a powerful army of countries that refuse to accept genocide. I call on nations to bring their armies and resources together to defend Palestine. We’ve had enough words.”

John Cleese: “I’m going to institute the Monty Python Peace Prize, which will be awarded each year to the highest bidder.”

Saturday 17 January

An exhibition at the Bomb Factory in Marylebone had to close early when it was smashed up by vandals who targeted the window featuring Peter Kennard’s images against the genocide in Gaza. Will anyone be prosecuted? I doubt it as it was not committed by pro-Palestine activists but directed at an anti-genocide exhibit. Peter is the father of investigative journalist Matt Kennard.

X will no longer allow me to open a link in Safari, my default browser, I have to either read it immediately or go through some awkward manoeuvres to open it. I just posted an article to Bluesky without reading it just so I could read it later. I resent having to be forced into changing my browser, Chrome might be better but that’s for me to decide 😠

Sunday 18 January

Defend Our Juries defendants ‘evicted’ from court for reading out statements

Activists have been thrown out of their own trial for refusing to comply with orders from the bench.

Monday 19 January

Protesters in Scotland arrested for carrying signs in support of Palestine Action have been offered £100 fines instead of prosecution. The levies, which are the equivalent of a parking fine, reveal the ridiculousness of attempts to prevent protesters from supporting the proscribed group.

Martin Luther King Day. On the day before he was assassinated he recalled the letters he received while recovering from a near fatal knife attack; he couldn’t remember what the President, Vice President or Governor said, but he did recall the words of a little white girl, “I read that if you had sneezed you would have died, I’m so pleased you didn’t sneeze.”

Tuesday 20 January

Oglala Lakotas, are closing their Reservation borders. Cheyenne River Lakotas are doing the same. ICE, is in South Dakota!

The Court of Appeal has substantially eroded the independence of juries by ruling in favour of a judge who threatened a jury with criminal proceedings if they applied their conscience to a case concerning climate activists. I’ll have more to say about this in a later blog.

Thursday 22 January

Netenyahu didn’t attend the signing of Trump’s “Board of Peace Charter” because he was afraid of being arrested if he set foot in Switzerland. Yanis Varoufakis commented that the silver lining in all the turmoil is that there’s something that keeps Bibi awake at night.