In todays @Telegraph @CitySamuel write about Brexit and the difference between the purchase of vaccines in the EU and the U.K. Thread 1/

First point of importance.
All U.K. purchases and approval of vaccines actually happened under EU rules. Until the end of 2020 the U.K. was bound by EU rules and the U.K. was part of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) 2/

The U.K. approved the use of vaccines faster than EU countries. That is because the U.K. used a procedure under the EU-rules that allow for national emergency approval under certain circumstances. EU countries could have done the same but decided not to 3/

The decision not to do emergency approval was a political choice. One of the reasons is the question of liability.
In the case of emergency approval the liability for the product lies with the country allowing the emergency approval. 4/

When a vaccine is given marketing approval following the normal procedure liability is with the producer.
There are EU rules on that laid down in the EU product liability directive and there are also rulings by the Europan court of Justice on vaccines and liability 5/

Republicans celebrating MLK Day with inspirational tweets who also joined a Supreme Court brief in support of the Texas AG's attempt to nullify millions of Black votes: a thread

Rep. Rick Allen

Rep. Jim Banks

Rep. Dan Bishop

Rep. Ken Buck

1. About 2 years ago, the FG proposed a RUGA solution to herders farmers conflict and some Nigerians blackmailed the conversation with some of the most disgusting ethnocentric bile you would ever see.
The monstrous gang up weakened people like me, who wanted a lasting solution.

2. Some people even went as far as saying the FG shouldn't invest Nigeria's money to pastoralists advantage. I was stunned at such amount of bile. When you point out that other farmers were equally collecting grants, they started comparing the amounts of grants looking for bias.

3. It was shocking that a problem which predated the amalgamation of Nigeria was reduced in space and time to become the agenda of a Fulani President who wanted to "Fulanise," Nigeria of 2010s and 2020s. Apart from it being socially impossible it is also bizarre to think such.

4. Hypocrites of all shapes and sizes crept out of their holes, spinning conspiracy theories that would have made the writer, Dan Brown green. In one breath, you hear, "ranching is the solution," in another you hear, "don't use my father's land for ranching."

5. At the end of the day, we're neither here nor there. The forced stalemate of that RUGA conversation of 2019, is morphing into a bigger problem for Nigeria's unity in 2021. Every right thinking Nigerian know we have to sieve out the criminals from the Fulani pastoralists.

REAL TALK ALERT:
I’ve recently finished my 1st round of CBT (therapy) & waiting for my 2nd more in-depth CBT (god bless the NHS). My diagnosis & cause, which I don’t need to speak of here, are linked to my lower socio-economic upbringing, which is linked to a lot of past trauma

Which in turn affects my anxiety levels, my worth, my body image, my confidence & of course very low moods.
I tweet this not for any sympathy but
I want to normalise the idea that we can talk and reach out to people or in fact the services that are available

It’s insanely important and necessary for all. So please reach out. It is incredibly hard to have mental health issues in normal circumstances, but under a pandemic. Like literally fuck off, that’s something else. And I salute and feel all of you going through that.

But also here is a call to men. Some of you may well know this. But you need to talk and ask for help. It’s not a weakness. No one thinks less of you. You can’t ignore it and it’ll go away. Asking for help, talking about your feelings, seeking guidance doesn’t make you lesser

Lots of people may well look at me and think he’s doing ok in theatre, he’s got his shit together, he’s a big guy. But any success doesn’t make you feel any better if your mind is determined to belittle it, I may be 6ft1 but that doesn’t stop me feeling about an inch tall

Well, UCP supporters, are you happy NOW? What is it going to take, for you to open your eyes, and realize that @jkenney & the @UCPCaucus is f***ing incompetent?
Good god you bunch of drooling idiots.
You threatened the lives of @RachelNotley @SPhillipsAB & other NPD officials>

2/ , their staffers, & their supporters, for passing legislation to protect employees (HOW DARE THEY want people to be safe! The HORROR!) and protecting natural areas of this province.
You SCREAMED about not enough consultation on BigHorn. So you tell me - where the F*** was >

Politics on social media creates echo chambers that result in people automatically being offended and easily being hurt by terms like "SJW", "libtard", "racist", "fascist", "sexist", etc...I've been scolded by users for saying certain words, even lately, but I've also gotten...

1. Another batch of submissions to the @Commonswomequ GRA inquiry have been published, including our own. We will link to some of the most interesting in this thread.

https://t.co/w0TAYjMCOn
"We recommend the removal of the term ‘gender’ when they actually mean ‘sex’...

2. from all official documents, and a public information campaign to do the same across the whole of the UK."

"We recommend anyone issued with a GRC is told very clearly that their sex has not changed, and they are not entitled to the rights of the opposite sex."

3. From a @MerchedCymru woman:
"I know of one school in Cardiff where the School, despite complaints to the School and Governors, have deliberately replaced single-sex provision with mixed-sex provision........done in the name of

4. Very interesting from Judge Paula Gray, the President of the GenderRecognition Panel:
"Panel induction training included talks by trans people, and we were addressed on the background to the...Act through an academic approach by Prof. Steven Whittle.

5. From @AnnMSinnott at the AEA:

"The law is clear but the same cannot be said for guidance on EA2010 from the EHRC nor from the GEO."
(Ms Sinnott is seeking judicial review of this guidance, see her profile for

Before everyone raises glasses to make their “the system worked” toasts, let’s remember…./1

The racism, nativism, sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and vicious social hatred/2

The lawlessness and disorder, the disinformation and lies, the vanishing norms of governance/3

The corruption and cronyism, the toxic rhetoric from the presidential bully pulpit, the dysfunctional and brutal public policies/4

The politicization of basic public health and the dismissal of science and expertise/5

@cafreeland As a retired former RN in BC., in conversation with an RN I met who is working with Covid patients, she requested counselling through a program with her Vancouver City hospital. Was told she could have an appointment in SIX MONTHS. I know this is not at all providing support. 1/2

You state, "...when the pandemic is behind us." Currently, nurses are being traumatized with particularly the suffering of Covid patients and the high number of deaths NOW. I had fewer than 8 in my 34 yr. career in Critical Care. Some RN's now are having 2 of their ICU 2/3

patients die in one 12 hr. shift and may have to assist other RN's in ICU who lose their patients and have to prepare the bodies for the porter to take to the morgue. To not have immediate support and counselling for these nurses is absolutely not okay. There are going to be 3/4

many who leave a career they previously loved and spent 4 years preparing for a long professional career. Now they are disheartened and traumatized as well as exhausted physically (many are working double shifts, many more days without a day off) and definitely mentally and 4/5

emotionally empty. One nurse on Twitter two weeks ago stated in her ICU there had been 12 deaths! Imagine dealing with this one day and having to return to another day of more Covid deaths. There needs to be immediate provision with each hospital to provide an area in the 5/6

When Leah talked before a grand jury in 2012 many of her immediate friends leaped to her defense. Thankfully it was rather easy to box largely apolitical kids only passing through the punk scene out of anarchism forever. I worry the coming wave of repression will be far messier.

Today many folks see social media spaces like twitter *as* the movement or scene. And many folks less committed AFK can be louder on here, which means the housemates and buds of a snitch might create giant flamewars online, also making it harder for onlookers to discern norms.

Further, the next wave of state repression is probably going to look more like the 00s Green Scare than the 2012 Grand Jury, that is to say, *many* trials simultaneously. And *a fuck ton* of people snitched in the Green Scare.

I chalk the mass snitching in the Green Scare up to 1) many of the targets and their circles being only loosely ideological / firmly in the scene, and 2) the sheer scale of the repression, which sometimes let snitches bond together.

In contrast situations where Grand Juries failed usually involved highly ideological, highly committed people, with intense binds to the anarchist AFK scene. Folks for whom "I guess we're just going underground / serving time" was not a surprise development.

Ok, so here we go. This is a thread and I'm not numbering them. I have been thinking about this for a while, and when @BeautyHeathen read me to filth, this is the first thing that came to my head...and when she said that maybe I already knew what it was, I think this is what

that means. I'm killing two channels, Rox Reacts and MetRox en Español. I am going to take all the content I already started working on for those channels and add them to Aviddiva and MetRox. I am testing other things to see what might work and what will not, not just for you

all but for me. It is no secret that I have been miserable with commentary for the last year. There are tons of other things I want to focus on and the reality is that although I have all the receipts for the videos I'm working on now, it has become increasingly difficult to

get through them. The amount of stupidity, micro-aggressions and nonsense I have seen recently is just mind boggling. I'm just tired of focusing on the stupidity and it is not adding to the anxiety I feel right now. There is other content that is more fun and more interesting

so I will focus on that. So all the reviews or "commentary" on books, magazines, movies, etc, will go on @AvidDiva , which I had planned to move more into artistic endeavors, projects and trying out new art forms as means of expression. As for Metamorphosis Rox, it is going

1. 🚨 Announcement!

I, with everyone, have dedicated my last five years of time & money to crowd sourced projects digging into Republican finances, writing as much as possible, & working to topple the far-right agenda.

I will still do this, but I'm narrowing my messaging.

2. My personal platform is equality, safe access, and inclusion of marginalized communities to natural areas, making marganilized communities partners and stakeholders in the environmental conversation, & including unsafe & dirty living conditions as a mental health issue.

3. I will also teach & encourage everyone, especially children, to tell their environmental story from their backyards & communities by using very basic equipment (such as cell phones) and how to use these stories to gain public awareness & stop #EnvironmentalRacism

4. Environmental solutions aren't these big ideas which are only available to governments & corporations.

Environmental health, especially those in cities, include trash pickup, standing water, more sidewalks for both walking and bike riding, air & water quality, clean parks...

5. Bus stops in front of parks with wheel chair access, emergency call buttons in parks, security available in parks which represent all citizens, lighting in neighborhood parks, natural areas which double as educational resources, green spaces, urban gardening, and so much more.

A horrifying report from the Government Office of Accountability (@USGAO) on two secretive and abusive DHS programs at the US-Mexico border. Before the analysis, a reminder that neither @POTUS nor DHS secretary nominee @AliMayorkas have agreed to end them.

Very troubling to see the stunning lack of context on the length and conditions of detention from @USGAO. @CBP held asylum seekers in unsanitary, punitive conditions well beyond the 72-hour limit. GAO also takes for granted certain false or misleading assertions by DHS.

Before I dig into those issues, a couple of highlights from the data. CBP placed a total of 5,290 people into either program (HARP for Mexicans, PACR for non-Mexicans), which hold asylum seekers effectively incommunicado while they are rushed through a “credible fear” interview.

Of the total, at least 3,730 people placed in the
programs were removed from the US. There are about 50 people in detention now pending removal (whose cases should be reviewed given the deportation moratorium!). These folks were all denied a meaningful opportunity to seek asylum.

The majority of people placed in the programs were families with children (not single adults). Only 20 percent of those asylum seeking families spent 7 or fewer days in CBP border jails, which is already way too long. 86 percent of people spent "20 days or fewer" in border jails.