Helen

A coordinated social media effort is believed to have won the election for Lula: I trawled its 10-million-strong WhatsApp group to uncover a playbook for the left: alexandreafonso.substack.com/p/inside-lul...

A serial rapist was elected twice as President, a fact we don't reckon with nearly enough. Now one of two major political parties has been molded in his image, run for and by violent sexual abusers who hate women.

Flavio Bolsonaro crying after losing the election. I hope that cheered up your day.

The lessons from Brazil and Serbia? Don't concede one inch of ground to the far right. Don't appease. Don't triangulate. Don't grovel. Don't say they have "legitimate concerns". Mobilise your base, and fight them with all the democratic means at your disposal.

This Police Foundation response to the govt aim to halve VAWG in 10 years is clear that money is the crucial - and frequently missing - element. Spending on VAWG was slashed (of course) under Tory govt austerity. The strategy isn’t clear on new finance. www.police-foundation.org.uk/2025/12/vawg...

This is such a fantastic photo: "The Witches' Tea Party" but I want to use it to explain the origin of the tall, pointy witches hat. The real story of this photo: These are residents at the Hospital of the Holy & Undivided Trinity: an almshouse in Castle Rising, Norfolk, England established 1610.

NHS consultants to go on two-day strike in England in November, says BMA

Very interesting thread from Brazil about defeating fascism, even when it looks like hope is lost. (I’ve deliberately reposted the centre of the thread, so read both up and down, but down has the ‘strategy’.)

Great news for nature! 🎉 Today’s announcements by the Prime Minister at the first Wildfire Resilience Summit announcing £25m for peatland restoration is a positive step forward. This investment will mean that the critical & vital work restoring these natural landscapes can continue.

It's really important to pay attention to the fact that Lula beat the fascist candidate not by compromising and trying to meet fascist voters in the middle, but by sticking to his guns, promising prosecutions for election interference, and mobilising his own voters to turn out in greater numbers.

Americans should be rioting. Why aren’t they?

The images and footage from across Serbia tonight are genuinely inspirational. A protest movement taking its country back. This is Freedom Square in the city of Novi Sad. 🇷🇸👏 (🎥 192 RS)

The full story here needs told globally In 2024, students began protests. In 2025, the movement evolved into sustained, civil disobedience - from road blockades to mass demos. In 2026, the protesters formed their own political party. Weeks later, they turfed an authoritarian from office. Resist.

For two years, student-led protests have raged against Aleksandar Vučić and his corrupt government in Serbia. Today, in parliamentary elections, he was toppled. One of the most sustained protest movements in recent European history has succeeded. Resistance works.

We may need to give the Democracy Gold Medal to the Georgians. This is beyond impressive.

💜OUR WORDS MATTER We should be able to say girls, women, pregnant women and mothers. We’re asking for clear, sex-specific language in public comms Sign BOTH petitions and help make our voices heard. ✍️UK: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/77... ✍️Change: c.org/fhpGqwRTHW 💜 #JustSayMother

Russia is the number one suspect behind deadly drone attacks on civilian ships in the Black Sea, which shook Bulgaria just ahead of Sunday's presidential election.

Breast cancer treatment is far better now and improving all the time, with an average of almost 90% of UK women surviving over 5 years and 76% over 10 years. The survival stats are even better for breast cancer found at an early stage - almost 100% over 5 years - so go for your breast screening!

This is what happens to people who try to raise concerns about treatment on gender in Sussex. "Dr Sarah Redvers, who was a named safeguarding GP, said she faced a brutal investigation after she passed on complaints brought to her by other doctors." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

One of the big findings in my research is that people invested in disbelieving victims are not swayed by evidence. Just like other issues of misinformation, they cherry pick irrelevant details to allow them to continue to believe whatever they want.

Watch history being made. A Ukrainian soldier was stuck on the front line for over 16 months, so badly hurt he had to cut off part of his own leg. Earlier this month, a drone carried him to safety. Ukraine calls it the first drone rescue in history. Video: 92nd Assault Brigade

Kudos to NBC New York for saying it without equivocation: "The US is to blame for the world falling behind in the fight against climate change."

The immigration doom loop, summed up here by @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Let’s not forget a few months ago that the Daily Mail in one of the biggest displays of a lack of self awareness in modern history actually ran a story complaining bitterly that many Poles are leaving the U.K. and wondering what on earth could have happened to make them want to leave

Haven’t got tickets for the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum? Don’t worry you can visit Reading's full-size copy, faithfully embroidered by 35 women in 1885-86 (plus extra pants!) Or latest blog compares the two tapestries www.readingmuseum.org.uk/blog/comparing-bayeux-and-reading-tapestries

Still one of my favs from the last year

Slamming into reverse so fast you can hear the gears crunch

is Britain full or not, i can never remember

“When I look round the boardroom at the other board members Palantir has recently also recruited from the House of Lords – notably Lord Vader and Lord Voldemort – I don’t have any sense that these people are evil,” said Watson. From the new Private Eye, out now.

If men try telling me that women only need toilets at work for pee and poo and so what does it matter if men come into the Ladies, I’m going to spell out the bloody truth. Women’s toilets are a safe space for us while we deal with the consequences of biological reality. We don’t want men there.

Actually at times feel we lost our rights as women and we never getting our words back then think of the most vulnerable women and we have to win our words back women be braver than yesterday and speak up and sign our petitions petition.parliament.uk/petitions/77...

One woman scientist named in UK’s GCSE science syllabus. Three named in A level science. How many men? 85 and 178. Funny that. Half of my 50 PhD students have been women; four of them (and one man) are now professors. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"Besides, when you say you're a feminist it annoys the bigots and the old farts and the prissy ladies so much, it's kind of irresistible." Ursula K. Le Guin 🫅

Very close to 10,000 petition.parliament.uk/petitions/77...

Also...

This is your reminder that a full copy of the tapestry exists, and you can see it in Reading Museum for free and without jostling in an overcrowded line with staff shouting at you to keep moving.