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On today’s News Watch: 👉 Doctors strike - do they make £100k? 👉 Zohran Mamdani’s win reveals rampant Islamophobia 👉 What does the Afghan data leak tell us about the UK media’s priorities? 👉 Japan’s far-right surge 🎙️ Your hosts are @helenawadia.bsky.social & @mathildamall.bsky.social LISTEN ⤵️

🚨 NEW EPISODE 🚨 ‘What is a woman?’ The question that has plagued British media and distracted politians for years. This episode, we ask: why? 🗣️ With @katymontgomerie.com 🎙️ Hosts @helenawadia.bsky.social & @mathildamall.bsky.social

Any ideas? 👀🙏

What does Hungary’s decision to withdraw from the ICC mean for international law? Should we be worried? Our Director @tayabali.bsky.social spoke with @mathildamall.bsky.social of Middle East Eye to explain why accountability will win out in the long run. #Hungary #InternationalLaw #ICC

I measured Starmer’s immigration white paper against his own standards. He found himself wanting. @bylinetimes.bsky.social

We are back. And we’re coming for Starmer.

Any listeners out there? We’re going live! I’d really love to meet those of you who value what we do at Media Storm (or have no idea what we do but have your own ideas about how the media can improve). Come join us for some fun & fury on 20th May ✨

1/ Why did UK media not pick up this story? Of all mainstream outlets it only made the Guardian, oddly a full 24 hours later. A secret meeting in London between UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and Israel's Foreign Affairs minister Gideon Sa'ar 👉 This *should* have been a major political story...

Having excluded all trans people from proceedings before it, the Supreme Court decides in favour of For Some Women Scotland.

Huge, if true.

Situation A: 14 abuse allegations against one male professor result in him staying and multiple female staff resigning in protest Situation B: Academia gets more male-dominated every level up you go Is it possible Situations A and B are related? I investigated. bylinetimes.com/2025/03/17/m...

I spoke to women leaving academia posts because they feel universities are protecting predatory professors. Is this one cause for the ‘leaky pipeline’ problem, which sees women falling out of academia at every rung of the ladder?

🔴'The Media is Misreporting Why People Aren't Having Children' These are the real reasons birth rates are falling, argue @mathildamall.bsky.social and @helenawadia.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/03/10/b...

Believe it or not, I went on a Channel 4 reality show titled ‘Go Back To Where You Came From’ to try to fight sensationalist polarisation. It was really hard. Here’s what I learned.

I’m calling for a trump news boycott Please.

👋 Bluesky followers, if you’re sussing out whether I’m worth your feed, this podcast is the best way to know. Here’s our latest weekly news watch (wrapped just before Jeff Bezos took a shit on America’s free press). Our USP? 👇

We have a winner

Sadly think we’re playing a fool’s game throwing moral words like ‘appals’ and ‘shameful’ at Trump. His currency is ego. So mock the idiot swallowing what Putin shoves down his throat. Laugh cos the US chose a gullible child. Say this man is thick as fuck.‘Stuns the world’ is praise to him.

💥 Latest episode ❓Why does asexuality make the media so angry? 🎙️ Featuring @theyasminbenoit.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/2Hr4...

Today’s NEWS WATCH: 🗞️ Trump’s “war” on women’s sport 🗞️ Hostage handovers are delayed: why? 🗞️ Is Labour Reform-ing? 🎙️ Hosted by @helenawadia.bsky.social & @mathildamall.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/2S5g...

There are (a small but loud number of) people who used Somali women’s testimonies of FGM as a ‘cultural’ case against taking in refugees, after it appeared on C4’s #gobacktowhereyoucamefrom We invited those women to respond directly on @mediastormpod.bsky.social

🔴FGM: How Can We Achieve Zero Tolerance With Zero Coverage? 230m girls and women alive today are believed to have been subjected to some form of female genital mutilation – yet it rarely ever makes the news @mathildamall.bsky.social & @helenawadia.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/02/07/f...

On Monday, I appeared on @channel4tv.bsky.social’s wildly controversial #GoBack To Where You Came From. Lots to say on this. But first, the most important. In ep 1, we learned about FGM, one of the biggest killer of girls. This week marked the UN day to fight FGM. I couldn’t find a single headline.

Musk’s only redeeming feature is he brings out a Starmer with a spine

‘SHOOTINGS AT/AROUND/NEAR MIGRANT CAMP’ These headlines clearly imply violence by migrants, when migrants were actually targeted by a French national. Deliberately ambiguous clickbait? Surely not.

Friends, fellas, democracy defenders, fighters for freedom, We need your support, Georgia’s freedom needs your support!🇬🇪🇪🇺 “THE BIGGEST THREAT TO THE REGIME IS INFORMATION” Let the world see this!👇 THANK YOU!🙏💛 #TerrorInGeorgia #GeorgiaProtests #NAFO #Fellas #NAFOarticle5 bsky.app/profile/did:...

Sad to see Mishal Husain leave BBC Today, imo their best and lest egotistical interviewer. I once worked with her producer to get more refugee and asylum seeker voices into Radio 4 coverage - not a lasting legacy, but I witnessed Husain give more minutes than she has to delivering meaningful news.

Why Georgia’s protest matters to the West but the West still looks away - my words in @bylinetimes.bsky.social

The Media Must Report On #Georgia Violence Pro-European protesters are raging against the #Putin-aligned Georgian Government’s decision to scrap the country’s bid to join the #EU @mathildamall.bsky.social @helenawadia.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social

The UK & EU still label Syria’s new rebel government a ‘terrorist’ group. Yet one day in, it’s safe for Syrians to go home? Two ideas that make no logical sense together - except in being as stupidly Western as each other.

Counterpoint: Do

Few have done more to bring Georgia’s story to the world recently than Tbilisi photographer Ezz Gaber. These are his photos. Disgracefully, Facebook appears to have just BANNED his account, accusing him of spreading fake info & inciting violence. Looks like state intervention. #GeorgiaProtests🇬🇪

Violence in Syria committed by the Assad regime and its allies Iran and Russia are consistently underreported in Western media. I am a Syrian journalist on the ground trying to fill in the coverage gap, please consider supporting my work: ko-fi.com/faredalmahlool

Western media ignore the human motives of any action by groups dubbed ‘terrorist’. This includes HTS, Syria’s core rebel force. Western officials have criticised HTS’ use of violence, without apologising for their failed & abandoned diplomatic alternatives. Rebels have their reasons: report them.

The UK Govt must move swiftly and legislate to cap donations or make foreign donations via a British-based entity illegal. Musk’s business incited race riots in the UK & spread racist disinformation. He is a state-level threat to the UK & his interference and money need blocked. Now.

Police accused of ‘discriminatory’ and ‘heavy-handed’ approach towards children from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities ‘Our Whole Existence Is Illegal’ @mathildamall.bsky.social @helenawadia.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social

Relieved and joyful about the UK’s assisted dying vote— these brave people are why. For some, a legacy they never lived to see.

The Telegraph’s legitimisation of a second general election would be a lot more credible if it’s commentators hadn’t called the second Brexit referendum “a gross betrayal of our democracy,” “a disaster for Britain,” and a “delusion” by “‘People’s Vote’ zealots” 🤷🏼‍♀️

My podcast wife @helenawadia.bsky.social and our podcast baby @mediastormpod.bsky.social have officially migrated to blue skies! Give them a follow 🦋

Podcast recommendation: Media Storm is a mixture of analysing the media and exploring stories with experts. The episode on why people join the far right is an essential listen Follow co-host @mathildamall.bsky.social 🎧 mediastormpodcast.com/podcast/epis...

WEEKLY COLUMN @bylinetimes.bsky.social 1/ Amsterdam’s mayor regrets comparing Ajax-Maccabi violence to a “pogrom”, saying the phrase, plastered across the mainstream media, has been “turned into propaganda”. Well done her for setting the record straight. Now where is the media’s mea culpa?

For all the non-news The Telegraph publishes about transgender people, where is their headline on this? 350 transgender people murdered in the last year. 93% were people of colour. #TransgenderAwarenessWeek

If you bring central London to a halt in order to campaign against catastrophic climate change then you're a "barmy" eco "fanatic" who deserves to be locked up. If you do the same to hang on to your multimillion pound inheritance tax exemption then you're a brave freedom fighter defying the odds

The UK’s End of Life (assisted dying) Bill is for terminally ill people, so I’m confused by how few of their voices I’ve heard in the debate. Went to find them…

A word on the Allison Pearson free speech row, and what she describes as a ‘Kafkaesque’ threat to it. We asked her on @thenewsagents.bsky.social to discuss. She said: ‘No. And if you get any aspect of the story wrong my lawyers will be watching.’ Gotta love a free speech warrior 🤷🏻‍♂️

With farm owners protesting today over the prospect of paying a highly discounted inheritence tax, I'm sure you've seen quotes about how they "feed the nation". But nobody is talking about the migrant workers who actually pick the crops on horticulture farms, so here's a short thread about them.

hi ether, is anyone out there?