digitaldjeli

@digitaldjeli

SOAS ex BBC WS. Recovering anthropologist. Writing & reporting on Europe, Africa, the world - militarisation, conflict, energy transitions & The Threat Business www.digitaldjeli.com

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digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· 4d

The Israel-backed fanatics at UK Lawyers For Israel are trying to destroy this wonderful man. This shouldn't be allowed. archive.ph/sWPzC

The Observer Interview
Sunday 23 August 2026

'Everything hurts': The UK surgeon mending young minds and bodies in the Middle East

British-Palestinian Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah continues to treat victims of Israel's wars, but is facing a UK high court case accusing him of posts supporting terrorism and antisemitism

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· 9d

More Ukraine stories that are ignored by western media: how Zelenskyy's corrupt leadership has elevated the far-right.

Leonid Ragozin › @leonidragozin •

The trio of Ukraine's most politically influential active military commanders at the funeral of pre-WWIl Hitler's ally Yevhen Konovalets attended by Zelensky: Azov movement leader and Third Corps commander Andriy Biletsky, commander-in-chief Mykhailo Drapaty, Azov Corps commander Denys Prookopenko.

Zelensky's current power base is currently reduced to SBU, Azov structures backed by Renat Akhmetov and a shaky parliamentary mono-majority controlled by David Arakhamia.

Dogged by anti-corruption investigation which is backed by Ukraine's key funders, Zelensky is building a vertical of power similar to Putin's, but more militarised and with a more pronounced far right element by.
Photo posted by the ideodical service (khorunzha sluzhba) of the 3rd
Corps.

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· 11d

UAE comms has issued a rebuttal letter to the FT regarding the Sudan piece. They don't seem to grasp that you can invest in a country while simultaneously having imperial ambitions.

FINANCIAL TIMES
Letter: UAE-Africa ties reflect friendship going back years
From Afra Al Hameli, Director of Strategic Communications, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

While we appreciate the FT series of Big Reads on the United Arab Emirates, we are disappointed by the portrayal of the UAE's engagement in Africa. Its central premise - that the UAE is pursuing an "imperial" project across the continent - is fundamentally untrue (August 4).
To describe partnerships negotiated with sovereign African governments as evidence of "imperial ambition" is deeply patronising. It relies on a stereotypical and outdated narrative portraying African states as passive recipients of foreign influence incapable of identifying priorities that serve their national interests.
The UAE's engagement with African governments is based on mutually beneficial ventures and long-term investment - not political conditionality - and reflects a history of friendship and development going back over 60 years.
The scale and nature of UAE investment are essential to any serious assessment. Between 2019 and 2023, the UAE committed more than $110bn to projects across Africa, with approximately $70bn directed towards renewable energy. The majority of that capital was committed to clean-energy projects supporting electricity access, economic growth and development priorities.
ft.com

The treatment of ports is particularly illustrative. The article presents these investments as components of a grand strategic design, when in reality they are commercial agreements that integrate supply chains, facilitate trade and address infrastructure needs identified by partner governments.
A story ostensibly concerned with African sovereignty should allow African governments to speak for themselves. Your 2024 article on the same subject quoted President William Ruto of Kenya describing the UAE as a "very good partner" to African countries. Similarly, the African Union has expressed strong support for the UAE-Africa relationship, including initiatives such as our $1bn "AI for development" initiative announced at the G20 in Johannesburg.
Contrary to any portrayal, the UAE's engagement with Africa is a partnership built on sovereignty, long-term investment and a shared belief in Africa's youth and future.
Afra Al Hameli
Director of Strategic Communications, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· 12d

This is the Ukraine our £s & €s are funding - Bogdan Syrotiuk sentenced to 15 years jail & denied urgent medical treatment just for his writing.

Volodymyr Ishchenko @Volod_Ishchenko • 2h
A young Ukrainian guy from a poor family, raised by a single mother, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "high treason.…. under martial law" for writing several articles for a marginal Trotskyist media outlet.
"What was the subversive content? According to the court, the articles contained 'non-recognition of Ukraine's legitimately elected political leadership and democratic processes,' 'comparisons with fascists and Nazis, 'negative assessments of Ukraine's Armed Forces,' and
'reinterpretation of national heroes and historical figures.'
<..?
The verdict refers several times to the 'socially dangerous consequences' of
Bogdan's positions."
In fact, what he's been doing has been so far from dangerous, and so far beyond the Ukrainian public sphere, that some are convinced Syrotiuk was deliberately
denounced to the security service to draw its attention to his writings, most likely by some of his former "comrades" in "the Ukrainian left."
"Bogdan, whose health was already poor at the time of his arrest, has been denied urgently needed medical treatment for over a year, despite repeated promises from the prison administration. Every day behind bars is a threat to his life.'

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· 22d

#DRCongo Look at these Ebola numbers - they are terrifying. Almost 4000 cases & 2000 dead. Yet it's hardly being noticed. #Ebola

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· 26d

#Ukraine So much about Ukraine never makes the western media. You either have to read Ukrainian media or journal articles.

Screenshot of OSINT analyst' tweet from X 02/08/26
We may soon learn that Zelensky expended unsustainable levels of Ukrainian manpower in the first half of 2026 to create his "Ukraine turning the tide" PR campaign to try to win over Trump by the July NATO summit. And now the damage is coming due.

AMK Mapping @AMK_Ma....6h
Over the last few weeks, the situation for Ukraine on the frontline has rapidly deteriorated in an unprecedented manner not seen since early 2025. ...

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jul 7

#Gaza This is so fucked-up I'm speechless.

The Egyptian Relief Committee in Gaza had been organizing public screenings of World Cup matches for displaced families across the Strip.
About an hour before today's Egypt-Argentina match, Israel killed the committee's public relations director in a strike on his vehicle. Two others, including a child, were also killed.

@DropSiteNews • 2h
BREAKING: Israel has killed Mohamed Fawaz al-Wahidi, director of public relations for the Egyptian Committee in Gaza, Tuesday evening in a strike on a civilian vehicle near the governorate building in Gaza City's al-Sabra neighborhood, per the Palestinian Information Center.

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jun 28

#DRCongo archive.ph/0giNW

Don't allow Congo's leaders to trample its constitution
The US should not look the other way as President Tshisekedi seeks an illegal third term
FRED BAUMA

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jun 25

This is why you must not accept the lies propagated by the judge and other vested interests about #PalestineAction

Who were the suffragettes?
In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst, and her daughters Christabel and Sylvie, formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). They became known as the suffragettes. Their slogan was ‘Deeds not words.’
The suffragettes wanted to use direct action as they believed the peaceful methods of the suffragists were ineffective. Suffragettes used tactics such as:
Chaining themselves to the railings of Buckingham Palace. Queen Victoria had called the campaign for women’s suffrage a ‘mad and wicked folly.’
Burning down the homes of MPs who opposed women’s suffrage.
Burning down churches. The suffragettes felt the Church of England was opposed to women’s suffrage.
Breaking shop windows on Oxford Street, the main shopping street in London.
The government decided to take a hard line when the WSPU became more militant. Women were banned from political meetings and women who engaged in violence were imprisoned.
Image: BBC Bitesize

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jun 15

#NordStream Call me sceptical but I just don't believe this story now being promoted as a book by the WSJ journalist Bojan Pancevski. archive.ph/aODXH

Sabotage at the bottom of the sea
How did a former erotic model from
Kyiv find herself on a daring mission to blow up Russia's $20
billion Nord Stream gas pipelines?

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jun 14

#Ukraine A mass protest has erupted in the Desnyansky district of Kiev after military conscription officers attempted to seize a young man off the street.

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jun 13

This is just plain nauseating:

Net worth ranked top to bottom:
1
Elon Musk
$1.11T
2
Larry Page
$306B
3
Sergey Brin
$285B
4
Jeff Bezos
$260B
5
Larry Ellison
$238B
6
Michael Dell
$213B
7
Mark Zuckerberg
$202B
8
Bernard Arnault
$171B
9
Jensen Huang
$170B
10
Jim Walton
$148B

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jun 12

#Ukraine Posting this from the 'other place' because the news coverage in western media tells a different story of Ukraine from Ukrainian media. Iuliia Mendel was Zelensky's former communications exec.

Anther nightmare unfolds in Ukraine: men with lifelong disabilities, severe mental disorders, and those just months from turning 60 are being illegally locked up in Ternopil's recruitment center. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets freed five such souls — including a person with Group I| disability since childhood — only to find 28 more trapped inside. Their "guard" was blackout drunk, alcohol levels seven times the legal limit. How has Ukraine's defense come to this? Detaining the most vulnerable, the broken, and the sick in a drunken cage while the country bleeds. This cruelty will continue as long as the war does.

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jun 10

#Ukraine To be clear, Julia Mendel was Zelensky's former communications assistant.

You can no longer speak honestly about the country's leadership — criticism is treated as a punishable offence. The regime, he says, has killed most Ukrainians' will to live and serve honestly and hollowed out the trust that holds a society together. Real problems get buried under empty official reassurances
— "we're working on it, we're moving in that direction" — while the authorities obstruct far more than they fix.
And the proof of his own point: his command is now trying to silence him — fines, disciplinary actions, warnings from military counterintelligence and the security service
— precisely for saying this out loud.

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jun 8

#DRCongo WHO Bundibugyo ebola distribution and numbers. This is terrifying...

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jun 5

#DRCongo This is just plain fiction.

Ebola
A disease of
deforestation: how
Ebola is linked to the smartphone in your pocket 🤦🏻‍♀️

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jun 5

#Ukraine All these statements about Romania and not one of them mentions that... it was a UKRAINIAN drone. They keep doing this.

Kaja Kallas V @kajakallas
The drone explosion in the port of Constanta shows that Russia's war is increasingly spilling over into EU territory.
I spoke with Foreign Minister @oana_toiu about today's developments and expressed the EU's full solidarity with Romania.
The ultimate responsibility for what happened rests squarely with Russia. As President Zelenskyy told Putin in an open letter yesterday:
Moscow can stop this war any day.
Next week, EU Defence Ministers will discuss how to further ramp up our support for Ukraine and increase the EU's own defence readiness.

Al Jazeera Breaking News
@AJENews • 4h
BREAKING NEWS
Russia-Ukraine war becoming threat to EU's eastern countries,
BREAKING: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says Russia's war against Ukraine is becoming a threat to all countries on the EU's eastern border after a drone struck Romania's Black Sea port of
Constanta on Friday....

António Costa
@eucopresident
Full solidarity and support to Romania following the drone explosion in the port of Constanta this morning.
This is the third significant security incident in Romania in recent weeks.
These incidents are a direct consequence of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
The EU condemns the repeated violations of airspace of Member States and reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the security of all Member
States.
5:15 AM • Jun 5, 2026 • 24.1K Views

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Jun 3

#Ukraine Three headlines that tell you exactly why this war has to stop and both the protagonists need dragging to the negotiating table immediately.

Russia
Ukrainian drones hit St Petersburg as 'Russian Davos' opens in city
Energy and military sites targeted as guests gather for economic forum where Putin is due to speak on Friday

St Petersburg
9h ago
Watch Ukraine strikes St Petersburg oil refinery

Ukraine Zelenskyy asks Trump to send missiles after Russian strikes across Ukraine

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· May 31

#ArcticStories This midnight sun malarkey plays havoc with your sense of timing. I have to blackout my room & force myself to wind down otherwise I'm full of beans & bouncing.

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· May 26

#Ukraine Two photos one story:

Moscow wants to
'destabilise' Europe, EU chief warns, as countries summon Russian ambassadors over Kyiv threats - Europe live
Ursula von der Leyen visiting Lithuania amid drone incursions as diplomats are called over Russian requests for envoys

It is pretty astonishing that Ukrainian drones struck oil infrastructure in Latvia, triggering the resignation both of Prime Minister Evika Silina and Defence Minister Andris Spruds in May 2026, and the story barely made the headlines.
AP The Associated Press @@AP.5h
Stray Ukrainian drones have been breaching NATO airspace as Kyiv targets
Russia's oil exports.
On Wednesday, Lithuanians sheltered in Vilnius after an unidentified drone crossed the border.

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· May 15

#Nakba

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· May 14

#Nakba

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· May 10

#Ukraine You don't have to like Putin to agree that those who pushed Ukraine to continue fighting instead of the Istanbul peace deal, which was accepted by both sides & almost concluded, are as culpable as Putin for the deaths & destruction.

Russia
Vladimir Putin suggests Ukraine war is 'coming to an end'
Russian president damns western support that has allowed Ukraine to hold out and asks for talks with Gerhard Schröder in remarks after diminished Victory Day parade

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· May 6

#Ukraine Interesting article on the corruption in Zelensky's team. [paywalled article in German but (Ukrainian)author, Marta Havryshko, wrote the English translation in my tweet. archive.is/d71YZ

The new Mindich Tapes suggest that Zelensky's close associates, including Mindich, had significant influence over the Ukrainian defense sector-the very sector that absorbs the bulk of Western financial aid.
The "Midas" affair threatens to confirm what critics have long warned about - that parts of the Ukrainian political elite may have turned the war itself into a lucrative business, the profit of which depends not only on the amount of Western aid, but also on the duration of the conflict.
A large part of the recent "Mindich tapes" focuses on Fire Point - a company that now dominates the Ukrainian missile and drone sector and receives a significant amount of state funding. Three years ago, it was still casting actors and scouting locations. Today, Fire Point, which, incidentally, has a partnership with Diehl Defence.
Fire Point's rise was meteoric.... [due to thel privileged access through connections to Zelenskyy's inner circle. In recorded conversations, Mindich-though he denies any formal role—appears to be a beneficiary, lobbying then-Defense Minister Rustem Umyerov for increased state funding.
But focusing solely on Umyerov is too narrow a view.
The deeper problem is systemic corruption in the Ukrainian defense sector, which did not decrease during the war but may even have been exacerbated by the influx of Western funds. Zelenskyy, who once campaigned on a promise to break the system, appears instead to have reshaped it: a parallel network where proximity to power, rather than public scrutiny, determines who benefits.
The result is a grim paradox. While ordinary Ukrainians continue to die on the front lines, a small group - largely operating outside formal structures - is suspected of turning the war into wealth.

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Apr 30

Mason going hard on European vehicle breakdown kits.

Paul Mason (failed spook with political ambitions)

Very strong from Starmer - pledges to prosecute "globalise the intifada" - should go further and criminalise red triangle which has been hijacked by
Hamas
Quote tweet of:
BREAKING: Keir Starmer's full address to the nation over the Golders Green terror attack
*If you stand alongside people who say Globalize the Intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews*

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Apr 30

#Ukraine When they tell you about listening to Ukrainians...

Graph that shows Gallup polling in 2025 only 24% of Ukrainians support continuing fighting. 69% want a negotiated end to the war.
7% don't know

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Apr 22

Now that facial recognition is rolling out nationally you just knew that Palantir would be the next step. And Met Police had to be first...

Metropolitan police
Met police in talks to buy Palantir Al tech for use in criminal investigations
Exclusive: Internal concerns over allowing US firm linked to
ICE and Israeli military to process highly sensitive data

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Apr 18

Superb deep dive by Adam Hanieh on the place of the Gulf in contemporary food production archive.ph/17xxd

FT Weekend Essay
The coming global food crisis
Hunger & even famine areforeseeable consequences of the war on Iran. Now the world must act to shield the poorest from effects that will continue long after the fighting stops

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Apr 11

I don't normally share these things but this is verified & local please help Alaa take up her MSc Public Health course at Bristol University. Please share the link too: chuffed.org/project/from...

digitaldjeli@digitaldjeli· Apr 4

#Iran A woman sits in the ruins of her home in Tehran. Photographer Maryam Saeedpoor.