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The last episode in my 10-part serial about wildlife crime & conservation on the Pembrokeshire bird-islands. It’s been a great pleasure to get this stuff out where somebody might actually read it. Previous episodes at nation.cymru/?s=Howell+Harri….
The final episode of the Gannets of Grassholm reflects on how the protections which evolved following the terrible events of 1890 have helped create the third largest colony of northern gannets on Earth
✍️@trefeca 👉wp.me/p8Mk4U-Ado
nation.cymru/culture/the-gan…
Howell Harris retweeted
It’s wildly jarring to see media commentary about an election about Israel’s ‘soul’ from a locked down West Bank where Israeli army closures have sealed off towns and villages, settlers roam freely and terrorise Palestinians, schools are shut, commerce choked, and roads blocked.
Howell Harris retweeted
At the request of the illegal “Havat Maon” settlers, Israeli forces detained five Palestinian children, aged 8–12, for gathering wild vegetables and flowers near the settlement.
Palestinians are so dehumanized that this is still called a “ceasefire.”
Israeli strikes in Gaza killed 21 people this week, Health Ministry says haaretz.com/gaza/2026-10-29/…
Howell Harris retweeted
If only the opposition bloc would stop being racist and form a coalition with Arab parties, this fascist and his fascist coalition could no longer remain in power.
Interesting.
יש סיכוי לא רע שכשספרי ההיסטוריה יכתבו הם יציינו את הבחירות אתמול כנקודת תפנית בחיי ישראל/פלסטין. אבל זו לא התפנית שאתם חושבים.
הדבר החשוב באמת שקרה אתמול התרחש במזרח ירושלים - כ- 10,000 בוחרים יצאו להצביע (פי 5 מבחירות קודמות). הכי חשוב הוא שאף אחד לא ביקש מהם לצאת, המפלגות הערביות בכלל לא עשו קמפיין במזרח ירושלים - זו הייתה תנועה עממית, משפחתית, שכונתית. בניגוד לעבר בקלפיות לא חיכו להם פעילי פתח לצלם או לעלוב בהם. גם בקושי היו קריאות ברשתות החברתיות לחרם. אתמול איש כבר לא התבייש בהחלטה שלו להצביע. המשימה של סילוק בן גביר מהשלטון הכשירה את כל האמצעים.
כל מי שדיברתי איתו היום ממזרח ירושלים אמר לי שמשמעות ההצבעה אתמול היא שבירת החרם הפלסטיני על הבחירות. מה שאומר שיש סיכוי טוב שבעוד שנתיים, הפלסטינים בעיר, אם יהיו מאוחדים ונחושים יוכלו לקבוע את זהות ראש העיר.
(תזכורת: בניגוד לבחירות הארציות, בהן יש רק למיעוט קטן מאוכל' מזרח העיר זכות הצבעה, בבחירות המקומיות יש לכולם זכות הצבעה. כשאני אומר כולם אני מדבר על על 40% מתושבי ירושלים).
לאורך השנים השחתתי מקלדות רבות על ההשתלבות של הפלסטינים בירושלים בחברה הישראלית - מהמעבר לבגרות ישראלית בבתי הספר, דרך האוניברסיטה, השתלבות בשוק העבודה (מאבטחים, למשל), יציאת נשים לעבודה ועוד. השינוי הזה נולד בגלל חומת ההפרדה והואץ בשל הקיפאון המדיני. התהליך הזה לא נעצר ב-7.10, להיפך. בן גביר באכזריותו, האיץ אותו וסייע בשבירת החומה האחרונה - החרם על הבחירות. אם זה אכן יקרה (ועדיין יש כוחות לא חלשים בחברה הפלסטינית שיתנגדו להשתתפות בבחירות המוניציפליות) זה יהיה צעד גדול קדימה לעבר עתיד של שותפות פוליטית בין הירדן לים. לאן נלך משם? אין לי מושג, אבל כל דבר עדיף על המציאות הנוכחית.
כתבה:
haaretz.co.il/news/elections…
Howell Harris retweeted
BREAKING: I have warned for months of the refusal, across much of Israel’s political spectrum, to recognise Palestinian citizens as legitimate coalition partners. Now, with unprecedented participation and a projected 19 of 120 Knesset seats, even the legitimacy of their electoral gains is being challenged.
The Central Election Committee, chaired by Justice Noam Sohlberg, a settler from Alon Shvut, instructs David Zini, the Director of the Israeli Security Agency to investigate bogus allegations.
There is no independent judiciary or impartial civil service in Israel, and nothing but a facade of democracy which it struggles to maintain.
With that, the danger of post-election political violence is no longer remote. I fear it may be approaching.
Howell Harris retweeted
When it's convenient, #Israel trumpets loudly the fact that Arabs can vote in its elections.
But when Arabs win a record number of seats, the idea of joining hands with them is inconveivable.
Will the "Change" Coalition bring action to realize its name -- or is it just a word?
Netanyahu's bloc will likely settle around 54 seats. This is his lowest number since 1996, and identical to the bloc he had in the 1999 elections, which he lost. Yet Netanyahu & the Right have been successful in delegitimizing participation of Arab parties in gov't, getting the Israeli center to play by their racist rules.
Graph by the genius @LittleMoiz
Howell Harris retweeted
The issue in Israel is racism. Opposition to including Islamists or Arab nationalists in government rings hollow when fascists like Ben Gvir and Smotrich are accepted as coalition partners.
Howell Harris retweeted
While they may bring about limited positive developments, the elections show once again that a vast majority of Jewish Israelis support ongoing apartheid and war crimes.
Meanwhile, the majority of Palestinians all over the land support ending occupation and a peaceful solution
Howell Harris retweeted
It goes without saying that on a historic election night for the Arab voters, in which they’ve elected an unprecedented number of MKs, Netanyahu has just totally disregarded them as equal citizens. But that was to be expected. What’s more disappointing (though sadly not very surprising) is that the Jewish opposition leaders didn’t make any gesture in their speeches to the Arabs either, and spoke of a “Zionist” government. They deserve to lose to Netanyahu.
Howell Harris retweeted
SpaceX Blocked A U.S. And NATO Satellite to Assist a Russian Intercept After Crippling Ukraine's Air Defenses
The Math Proves the Reality that Musk doesn't want you to see.
On Oct 13-14, SpaceX restricted Starshield/Starlink during a 39-missile Russian attack, cutting Ukrainian drone intercepts by 23% and stranding U.S. personnel in Kyiv. Forty-eight hours later (Oct 15), SpaceX blocked U.S.-licensed NRO, Space Force, and NATO radar satellite ICEYE-X36 in orbit so Russia's COSMOS 2612 weapon could intercept it (99.89%-99.98% posterior)
Our Model Demonstrates that the Russian intercept of the US/NATO ICEYE X-36 satellite (contemporaneous with the throttling of Starlink) would not have been possible, and almost certainly not been attempted, without SpaceX resources. At a material opportunity cost, Russia sprinted its COSMOS satellite to intercept ICEYE X36. Based on a previous attempt in June during which X36 maneuvered to evade COSMOS, Russia knew that this would be successful only if X36 could not maneuver. On October 15, SpaceX fixed X36 in place by issuing a collision alert for a sub-kilometer approach with its Starlink 35856 when SpaceX's own data shows that the actual distance was 4.8-5.0x as great. SpaceX issued no warning to COSMOS despite the fact that its sprint was far more threatening than the stable X36 orbit. SpaceX did not maneuver its Starlink 35856 satellite to clear the supposed collision risk. How, absent coordination with SpaceX, could Russia have known that SpaceX would take actions that (a) misrepresented the danger posed by X36, and (b) resulted in the fixing of X36 thereby enabling COSMOS's successful intercept? Thus, SpaceX was directly involved in simultaneously compromising Ukraine’s defensive and offensive capabilities. The conjunction of these two events makes innocent explanations untenable.
The Pentagon Capture & Iran Round Two Trap: Pentagon CTO Emil Michael who cashed out $7M–$35M from Musk’s inner-circle SpaceX vehicles (M8/Gigafund 0.1 and M6/Valor M33 II) and KQ Partners / xAI (selling xAIfor $5M–$25M three days before taking over CDAO/OSCand 21 days before SpaceX bought xAI, while keeping M8, M6, M9, M10 & Nomadic open) and Pete Hegseth purged rival Anthropic in two hours, surrendered combat command over US drones used to attack Iran to Starlink’s "Terms of Service," and on October 2 named Musk Co-Director of Project Meridian to design the Pentagon's "Future of Warfighting" just as America enters Iran Round Twowith depleted Patriot/THAAD magazines and Russia feeding U.S. warship/aircraft locations to Tehran.
SpaceX’s actions in Ukraine raise serious questions about its alignment with US security interests and its reliability as a cornerstone of US defense. These questions are particularly troubling given the effectively irreplaceable position SpaceX has been granted by the Hegseth/Emil Michael Pentagon.
$SPCX $TSLA
Our full quantitative analysis below w/ @streetwiseprof
Howell Harris retweeted
During the January 6th attack on the nation's Capitol, Daniel Rodriguez drove a stun gun into the neck of Officer Mike Fanone. He was knocked unconscious, had a heart attack and suffered a traumatic brain injury. It ended his career.
Rodriguez got over 12 years in prison for his assault on police. On day one, Donald Trump gave him a "full, complete and unconditional pardon" and sent him home.
This is far and away the most corrupt White House in American history.
Howell Harris retweeted
כשאתם מצביעים, תזכרו שעל זה הבחירות.
על הכיבוש - שליטה צבאית במליוני אנשים שלא יכולים להצביע היום.
תזכרו את זה, והצביעו משותפת @ListJoint
Howell Harris retweeted
I've edited and written my fair share of harrowing stories but I really felt sick to my stomach the entire time I was editing this
Israeli forces have detained dozens of Syrians from the country’s south, some of them teenage boys taken from farms and family homes. Their families still don’t know where they are being held or why, reports @subhash_anagha for @newlinesmag. newlinesmag.com/reportage/th…
Howell Harris retweeted
Israeli settler terrorist Pinhas Shem Tov Ran erected a roadblock in the Nablus-area village of Aqraba last month and began checking Palestinians’ IDs without authorization. When a Palestinian man refused to comply, Ran shot at him and his 18-year-old daughter.
Israeli police and the Shin Bet detained Ran at his home on October 11. Last Friday, he was charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent, an offense carrying a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, and obstruction of justice, which carries up to three years.
Today, he was released to house arrest.
This is state-backed terrorism.
Howell Harris retweeted
Given that this was Trafalgar Week, I finally showed Master and Commander to my preteen kids - still sugared up from watching the MCU's Infinity Saga these past months. I almost wept as they sat there mesmerised, watching Captain Jack Aubrey, his good friend Dr Stephen Maturin, and the gallant HMS Surprise take on the Frenchies. They loved it so much they begged to watch the sequel. Alas, not.
We were promised a whole ocean of sequels drawn from Patrick O’Brian's twenty-book treasury, yet we were left with only this one magnificent voyage.
The disappointment cuts deep in its sadness. The picture came out just after everyone had stuffed themselves on Pirates of the Caribbean's rum-soaked capers. And although it was critically adored and pulled in respectable money worldwide, it didn't quite deliver the obscene domestic blockbuster numbers the studios now insist on before they'll green-light another expensive wooden ship full of extras getting wet and cold for months on end.
So the Surprise sits at anchor in our heads, her powder magazines untouched, while we quietly grieve the French frigates we never chased, the dinners in the great cabin we never attended. We wonder how the Hollywood bean-counters - who never once smelled salt spray or heard a broadside - managed to convince themselves this particular adventure wasn't worth continuing.
Alas, Master and Commander is one of those quiet sorrows that all film buffs will continue to carry like an old wound from a duel they never quite fought.

































