Kenan Malik

observer.co.ukWhen defence depends on a billionaire’s whim, democracy i...Elon Musk’s restriction of Starlink in Ukraine exposes the extent to which unelected power is being concentrated in the hands of a few tech moguls

“In any case, regulation still leaves the underlying problem untouched: that of corporations squatting upon public infrastructure. Addressing that requires us to transform the relationship between technology and the public.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

observer.co.ukFaber’s withdrawal of Sally Rooney’s novels exposes the i...There has been a year-on-year increase of 1,553% in ‘terrorism-related activity’ in the UK – most of it due to people holding placards

“It may be tempting to welcome restrictions on the rights of people whose views we despise. Such restrictions, though, are contagious. Defending the liberties only of some is to open way for anyone’s liberties to be curtailed.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

“For too many people, their detestation of Rooney’s views about Palestine is sufficient to blind them to the illiberal consequences of proscription and to its free speech implications.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

theguardian.comIranian woman handed death sentence for ‘blasphemy’ in social media postRights groups warn of Tehran regime’s increasing use of executions to suppress dissent, with at least 600 this year

Iran’s use of mass executions to instil fear of any dissent. The latest case is that of Najmeh Amini, sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for taking part in the January protests, and now facing the death sentence for blasphemy: www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Many on the right dismiss the Sally Rooney case as a free speech issue because she “broke the law by supporting/funding Palestine Action, a proscribed group”. Funny the same argument was not made in relation to, say, Lucy Connolly who also “broke the law” (and pleaded guilty). 1/

Sanctions on those who break legal restrictions on free speech are necessarily about “breaking the law”. The question is not whether they broke the law. It is whether that law is reasonable and the sanctions justified. In the case of Rooney, the answer is no and no. 2/

observer.co.ukLucy Connolly is no hero, but her words shouldn’t be a crimeLionising a woman who stirred up racial hatred is a moral failure of the right

Too many supposed defenders of free speech exhibit what one might call “two tier advocacy”. They’re defending not the right to free speech but the right to be hypocritical about free speech. observer.co.uk/news/opinion... observer.co.uk/news/columni...

haaretz.comNetanyahu seeks to join Saudi's fight against Houthis, crown prince opposes moveNetanyahu's efforts are aimed at strengthening ties with Riyadh and paving the way for a future normalization agreement between the two countries, a source told Haaretz

When “normalisation” becomes trying to join a new war even when you’re not wanted: www.haaretz.com/middle-east-...

Kenan Malik reposted

observer.co.ukAs an atheist, I’m with the Pope: AI can never have the ‘...Anthropic is trying to convince religious leaders that Claude can be conscious and moral, but an algorithm can’t comprehend our lived experience

“The guardrails necessary to ensure that AI systems do not act in harmful or destructive ways are not the equivalent of human moral norms. Rather, they are imposed to constrain the actions of a machine that cannot be moral.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Well worth reading and good that it is open access, even if only temporarily

Anil Seth@anilseth.bsky.social

1/2 🎇 Good news! 🎇 The kind people at Behavioral and Brain Science have made the new collection on "Conscious AI and biological naturalism" #OpenAccess for a limited time: target article, all 50 commentaries, & my response. Go to the link and click 'save pdf': doi.org/10.1017/S014.... Do share!

observer.co.ukMacklemore’s axing from Ed Sheeran’s US tour exposes the ...The outcry over the rapper’s calls for a ‘Free Palestine’ at the Met Life stadium shows that economic power is far more effective at policing free speech than ‘woke’ activists

20 Sept

“The policing of speech always comes armed with its own excuses.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

observer.co.ukDavis and Coltrane: 100 years of ice and fire | The ObserverOne was cool and ironic, the other fervent and spiritual. Born in the same year, Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s intense relationship flourished amid drugs, creative friction and a relentless search f...

16 Sept

“Read James Baldwin when you’re stuck. Listen to John Coltrane when you’re not.” Barack Obama’s advice to his speech writer: observer.co.uk/culture/musi...

observer.co.ukBritain is morally right to sanction Israel – but it won’...Ed Miliband’s measures against illegal settlements are a necessary gesture, even if they are predicated on a solution that is unviable

13 Sept

“The dilemma today is that neither of the two main solutions to the conflict – the creation of two states for Jews and Palestinians or of a single, secular democratic state for both – is viable. No sanction will alter that.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Kenan Malik reposted

Ellie Harris

@eleanorrrlouise.bsky.social

7 Sept

This piece completely gets what we were trying to do with the report; not locate the distress young people are experiencing with them, or in their own heads, but in the conditions they have found themselves in. In the policy choices made by adults. In the material conditions of growing up today.

Kenan Malik@kenanmalik.bsky.social

“Too much contemporary discussion of the impact of technology on the young fetishises the psychology at the expense of wider social realities.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

observer.co.ukOne in 20 young people have no close friends – and we can...It’s not just lives lived digitally driving loneliness and isolation; it’s a lack of libraries, youth clubs and jobs

observer.co.ukOne in 20 young people have no close friends – and we can...It’s not just lives lived digitally driving loneliness and isolation; it’s a lack of libraries, youth clubs and jobs

6 Sept

haaretz.comOtherwise Occupied • Israel isn't debating a Palestinian state. It's preparing for expulsionGadi Eisenkot's position on Palestinian statehood is beside the point. Across Gaza, the West Bank and Israel itself, the machinery for making Palestinian life impossible is already operating, laying t...

1 Sept

“Israeli policy is directed toward making life unbearable for Palestinians wherever they live, so that their emigration can be described as an act of free will.” Amira Hass in @haaretzcom: www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026...

x.comgato fumante (@KweenInYellow) on XIsrael's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has deleted his video depicting kidnapped Palestinians being sent into an industrialized slaughterhouse.

1 Sept

And then this from Itamar Ben-Gvir x.com/KweenInYello...

theguardian.comDry weather sewage discharges soar as water companies face scrutinyExclusive: 7,280 suspected illegal spills in rivers and sea recorded in first five months of 2026

1 Sept

“This level of criminality shows that water companies do not believe they [the regulator], or the government, will ever do anything meaningful to stop them.” www.theguardian.com/business/202...

observer.co.ukScapegoating foreigners won’t fix the social housing cris...Stirring up fury about immigrants’ access to homes fails to tackle the real problem – and raises disturbing questions about what citizenship means

30 Aug

“What kind of a society… is unable to provide its citizens with the most basic of needs such as housing,? And what kind of a society scapegoats marginalised groups to camouflage that failure?” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Ironically, sickle cell anaemia is a good example of the problems of reducing issues to racial categories. Because African Americans and Britons of Caribbean origin suffer disproportionately from the trait… 1/

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Most cases in South Africa come from central Africa migrants. Slavery to the America and to the Caribbean came predominantly from West Africa, where sickle cell is prevalent. Had it come from southern Africa the racial conversation in relation to sickle cell would be very different. 5/

It is the social imagination, not the biological reality, of race that turns sickle cell into a “black” disease. 6/

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There are distinct sickle cell genetic variants found in parts of equatorial Africa, parts of the Mediterranean basin, parts of the Middle East, and central India. The majority of people in Africa do not suffer from sickle cell disease. 3/

In America, the presence of the sickle cell trait can help distinguish between those with African origins and European origins. In South Africa it can’t, because black South Africans have a very low incidence of the disease. 4/

…there is a widespread perception that sickle cell anaemia is linked to race, and to being black. Sickle cell is actually a disease of populations originating in areas with high incidence of malaria. Some of these populations are black, some are not. 2/

Kenan Malik reposted

observer.co.ukGrenfell Tower report shows what’s good for business is o...US cladding company at the heart of the tragic inferno paid shareholders almost twice as many millions as it did survivors and bereaved relatives

“A story of how those with power possess the authority to avoid accountability while those without power lack the leverage to make the unaccountable accountable.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

observer.co.uk‘A chilling effect’: Palestine Action barrister speaks ou...Facing prosecution for a closing speech, Rajiv Menon KC denies asking the jury to act on their consciences, and recalls how the case led him to miss a visit to his dying father

“There is also now uncertainty over the status of the long-standing principle that a jury may act according to their conscience, and how that may be used in a defence speech.” Interview with barrister Rajiv Menon on a disturbing use of contempt of court: observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

observer.co.ukSentencing the Palestine activists for terrorism places c...The judge’s ruling in arms factory case raises spectre of what the defence barrister Rajiv Menon describes as ‘creeping authoritarianism’

And my column from June about the case: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

unherd.comEric Hobsbawm's age of contradictions

20 Aug

“The retreat to the small, and the jettisoning of grand metanarratives of the kind that Hobsbawm excelled at, has reduced our understanding of who we are.” @johnmerrick.bsky.social on @emile-chabal.bsky.social’s biography of Eric Hobsbawm: unherd.com/2026/08/eric...

striking-women.orgThe Grunwick Dispute | Striking WomenGrunwick was a photo processing plant in Brent, North London. The dispute took place between 1976 and 1978. The events of this famous [no-lexicon]strike[/no-lexicon] and the background of the women wo...

20 Aug

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Grunwick dispute, one of the most important strikes of the postwar years www.striking-women.org/module/strik... phm.org.uk/blogposts/ja... www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-... workingclasshistory.com/podcast/grun...

common-wealth.orgUnpunished and Undeterred: Corporate Accountability After GrenfellLegal frameworks governing corporate malpractice are not fit for purpose.

19 Aug

Grenfell Tower cladding firm Arconic paid almost twice as much compensation to its shareholders for economic loss from misleading statements about the cladding than to the estates of the victims and to survivors of the fire: Report from @cmmonwealth.bsky.social: www.common-wealth.org/publications...

nytimes.comHe Was Deported to a Country He’d Never Heard Of. He May Never Go Free.As the Trump administration sends a growing number of immigrants to countries they have no connection to, some find themselves imprisoned with no way out.

17 Aug

Transportation, 21st century style. And not just transported, but transported to a foreign prison from which they may never be released. Extraordinary how quickly this has become normalised. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/m...

observer.co.ukFrom CCTV to digital data, states are policing problems t...The migrant breach in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta reveals how increased securitisation by governments inevitably leads to a paranoia ‘doom loop’

17 Aug

“The way that political issues have become reframed as matters of security, to create ‘a world in which fellow civilians are the principal threat, and where military and surveillance technologies are deployed to “fight’ them’.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

16 Aug

“As trust has eroded, so security has become a kind of social glue.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

x.comBBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) on XEx-Cambridge professor at centre of plagiarism row found dead https://t.co/TAJLaIvQtv

14 Aug

This is tragic and terrible. It is, I wrote, a story from which few emerge looking clean. And that is still the case, including with much of the discussion over the last few hours. RIP x.com/BBCNews/stat...

11 Aug

“Our client is not averse to criticism, nor does he wish to stifle the legitimate voicing of opinions of those who may disagree with his work.” “We await your confirmation that no article will be published.”

Dan Neidle@danneidle.bsky.social

Why was the Jason Arday story broken by a racist blogger and not the mainstream press? Because Times Higher Education was intimidated off the story by a letter from notorious libel firm Carter-Ruck. I'm publishing the letter. Its central claim may be false.

10 Aug

An important bookshop, especially in an area with too few bookshops. Do support.