Simon Levene

@adamnash UK can do overnight incl with mail ins (voter must be registered and mailed x days ahead), midweek, polls close 10pm. 48M on voting register, turnout typically 60-70%, paper based, every vote tallied, no network calling anything

It is worth asking why Germany can count their votes so much faster than California… 🤔

@AdamRFisher well put. it's a shame that you feel it necessary to write this to educate, and that the broader mainstream media only see the letters "UN" and have not highlighted the fundamental institutional hijack / self-interest agency issue

UNRWA is the definitive example of the "Shirky Principle" of self-interest, which states that “institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.” UNRWA is the only UN refugee body dedicated to aiding a specific "refugee" population, and yet lacking an actual mandate to find solutions that end their refugee status. This indefinite mandate gives UNRWA the unique ability among refugee agencies to hire locally without concern of terminating their refugee status (99% of its 13,000 employees in Gaza are Palestinian). The result is that UNRWA's policies, outlook and people reflect the prevailing Palestinian view that only by perpetuating their refugee status can Israel be destroyed allowing them to return to their "homes." As the largest employer in Gaza, UNRWA is deeply embedded in Palestinian society. This is why UNRWA never acknowledges it had tunnel shafts built within its schools, or rockets stored within its clinics, or that Hamas now commandeers humanitarian aid trucks. An estimated 10% of UNRWA employees have ties to Hamas and other terrorist organizations, which is why when UN workers are killed in an Israeli air strike, they are subsequently revealed to have been covert Hamas members.  UNRWA should be placed under the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), like it should have been when the latter was established in 1951. Unlike UNRWA, the UNHCR has a mandate to resolve and "find durable solutions" that would end their refugee status.  Until then, the conflict will fester and metastasize as Western nations fund and nurture a destructive and fantastical worldview that believes that a baby born today, 76 years after his great-grandfather fled his home during wartime, is a bona fide refugee from ‘48 who will one day return.

@HackedOffHugh @JolyonMaugham @HackedOffHugh is it worth considering not settling and instead publishing a post/article listing all the accusations (or at min those you are fairly certain of)? then the info is in the public realm, and can be reported on. then News Corp's decision call to sue you or not

News Group are claiming they are entirely innocent of the things I had accused the Sun of doing - phone hacking, unlawful information gathering, landline tapping, the burglary of my flat and office, the bugging of my car, the illegal blagging of medical records, lies, perjury and the destruction of evidence.

For anyone who has been interested in my lawsuit against the Sun, the news is that  I’ve had to settle my claim out of court before it gets to trial. A 🧵…

🎙️📽️ We're proud to back @ArtoYeritsyan and the team at @PodcastleAI as they revolutionize content creation with AI. Read more about why we invested here -> (bit.ly/42wwE1g) #VC #Podcastle #AI #CreativeTools  Cc @PointNineCap @louicop @rtpvc @slevene @ChrisRainville_

@albertwenger Freestyle libre 2 also pushes. Latest software pretty good

I want to try a continuous glucose monitor. Recommendations?

@matthewclifford Sounds like an amazing life. Would love to hear her story matt, and the impact she had on your journey. my grandmother also arrived from berlin in '39 on the kindertransport, bootstrapped the family and is my hero

My wonderful Granny died last night aged 99. She was born Annette Abrahamsohn in Berlin and died Annette Clifford in Leicestershire. It feels a good moment to honour her parents’ extraordinary bravery, without which I and about 40 members wouldn’t be here…

@apartovi @hadip congrats on this major milestone ... and looking forward to the next decade. At the 20th, you have my commitment to celebrate little jimmy and the dolphins once again

This was an incredibly inspiring speech summarizing 10 years of unbelievable impact.

@shashj well. the chinese also subtly disabled all the ukrainian drones (manufactured in china) at the outset of the invasion last year. one swallow doesn't make a summer, but two ...

@chrija Very thoughtful of you to post this Christoph, with characteristic humanity. I too hope there will be peace in the future. An even brighter example of that dream is the relationship between Germany and Israel, within two generations of the shoah

2/ In 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty, which, in spite of numerous challenges, has held up to this day. Just a few years earlier, in 1973, the countries were fighting each other in the Yom Kippur War started by Egypt and Syria. Just like the situation appears to be hopeless today, very few people (I think) would have expected long-term peace between Egypt and Israel in 1973. The situation today is different, of course, but I thought it was a good reminder that there can be hope in seemingly hopeless situations.

1/ Like everyone I know, I’ve been horrified by the barbaric atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. I haven’t published a post about the terrorist attacks because I wasn’t sure if anyone is (or should be) interested in my opinion on the topic. I’m an early-stage tech investor, not an expert on the Middle East conflict. I’m aware that VCs chiming in on (and, maybe unintentionally, appearing to claim to have expert knowledge on) everything from pandemics to international politics has become a bit of a meme on Twitter. However, as more and more horrible details about the October 7 attacks have become known and as I’ve read more and more heart-breaking accounts from survivors and people who lost loved ones, I’ve felt an increasing urge to speak up. Talking to a few friends from Israel, I also got the sense that they appreciate anyone speaking up, even just to assure them that we’re not falling for Hamas propaganda that’s rampant now. So at the risk of stating a lot of obvious things, here’s my view. (1) The murderous attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians were a terrorist attack that cannot be justified by anything. I have great compassion for the Palestinians living in dire conditions in Gaza and the West Bank. The reasons for the bad situation of the Palestinians are complicated. There are no simple answers to this issue, and I don’t want to go into it further here. The point is that, regardless of Israel’s share of the responsibility for the dire living conditions in Gaza: nothing justifies the intentional killing of children and the murder of innocent civilians. (2) Israel has the right to defend itself and to do what is necessary to prevent attacks like this from ever happening again. (3) Israel must - and I believe will - aim to minimize so-called collateral damage, i.e. casualties amongst civilians. I don’t know what this means in practice when there are trade-offs. I know nothing about military strategy, but I’m assuming there are very difficult decisions to be made, where one military tactic minimizes civilian casualties amongst Palestinians but comes with greater risk for Israeli soldiers, and the other option is safer for Israeli troops but comes with more expected civilian casualties. I don’t know how the Israeli leadership decides in these cases. I’m glad that I don’t have to make these decisions. What I have no doubt about is that Israel will not intentionally kill civilians. That’s the big difference between a democracy like Israel and a terrorist organization like Hamas. (That doesn’t mean that democratic countries can’t do horrible things, too - think about Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, or My Lai.) (4) Unfortunately and tragically, a lot of innocent people in the Gaza strip will die in the war provoked by Hamas. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. The death of a Palestinian child is as tragic as the death of an Israeli child. It’s horrible to see the death toll on both sides increase with every day of this war, but make no mistake about it: Hamas is to blame for every single death. (5) I’ve mentioned above that some of the things I’ll write are obvious. The idea to hate people based on their ethnicity or ethno-religious group is so obviously stupid that it should go without saying. But given the surge of antisemitic protests and incidents not only in the Arabic world, but in many Western countries as well, including Germany, I’ll mention it nonetheless: Any kind of antisemitism is unacceptable. And Germany, in particular, must fight it decisively, with absolutely zero tolerance for intolerance. It’s hard to be optimistic that this war could be over soon, so I’d like to share a comment I’ve heard in a recent podcast interview by DIE ZEIT - the only uplifting thought I’ve heard about the current situation in the last two weeks.

@stevesi yes that movie had a profound impact on me as a teenager

@brenthoberman agree, just point scoring. labour should put their energy into PPE fast lane forensics and furlough fraud. billions syphoned off there by "friends" of the conservative party, at the expense of the taxpayer. good chance HMRC will get some funds back, plus criminal convictions

Sorry this is embarrassing for the guardian and cynics commenting below. (I was on the guardian board for 9 years and they are investors in founders factory so I get disappointed by the energy they spend on partisan baseless attacks like this article). There really is nothing to see here. And lots more important issues in the world… Zero chance Sunak did the future fund because of minority investments from his wife’s fund. She invested in U.K. cos to support founders and now all this cynicism is the British response. The future fund matching mechanic meant automatic funding if matched AND shared risk (ie private sector wouldn’t fund if they didn’t have a good level of belief in the co). Author also doesn’t qualify ONLY around 10 percent have failed which is strong result so far for the future fund. As fund has equity stakes in around 50 percent of cos that have raised follow on funding and have potential to make multiples of on that capital and hence more than compensate for loan losses. Power law dynamics of vc. Would the guardian and labour prefer the chancellor had done nothing ? Most leading economies had support methods (less well structured than this) AND labour gov wisely supported the future fund at the time. How would these cynics suggest their bizarre conflict of interest accusations could be avoided - by disallowing Akshay Murty cos from accessing future fund (noting she was a minority investor thus penalising the companies and other larger investors …) The fund backed a huge amount of companies, so the fact that four were also backed by Akshata is not unusual for a prolific U.K. tech investor. The extra point is these were gov funds seeking a return …. @carolvorders do you really believe the cynical motivations you imply?

@Freedland netanyahu is a poor leader, history will not judge him kindly ... settlement expansion; attacking rule of law, dividing country in two; the strategic blunder re hamas. Like Britain in 1940 there may be better alternatives, but whomever is in that chair will take on hamas ...

Netanyahu risks walking right into Hamas’s trap. Latest column theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

@StewartWood Yes very hard to imagine the plan. Everyone dreams there will be a legitimate Palestinian partner to hand over governance to, but one of many Netanyahu’s negative legacies is Fatah weakness. So it might need to be the UN or an int’l peacekeeping force … they cannot want to stay

thoughtful from @harari_yuval

@taimoorkhan1985 @BBCWorld My hope is for peace. Biden was getting on a plane to organize humanitarian aid and meet some of the key regional leaders, to avoid the war spreading beyond Israel/hamas. I am upset with lazy @BBCNews coverage because (1) it appears to be untrue; and (2) it derailed that effort

@slevene @BBCWorld Offcourse you zionist scum will shift the blame to Hamas. You are expertly trained in this. Israel proudly admitted they targeted the hospital. Israel's Naftali Bennet admitted IDF terrorists targeted the hospital later they deleted the tweet. So stop your lies already

Hundreds of people have been killed in an Israeli strike on a hospital in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials Follow the latest ⬇️

@JohnSimpsonNews @JohnSimpsonNews real friends take you aside, privately, and explain how you may have erred. the message is hard to digest, but honesty is integral to the relationship. If i was your friend (instead of just a lifelong BBC viewer who has lost trust), that's what i'd be doing now

I’ve come in for a lot of abuse, threats and taunts in the past few days, for defending and explaining the BBC’s standards. I’ve been yelled at in the street. But there’s one good thing — at times like this you do find out who your friends are. And aren’t.

@yarotrof Respect correction & walkback from "Israeli airstrike" narrative that was linked (w/attribution) in first hours. Of major media covering tragedy who all got it wrong & inflamed the situation with meaningful consequences, so far you are the only one to reverse. Silence from others

Deleting this tweet because we do not in fact know for sure that hundreds died in the Gaza hospital strike. The actual toll, while high, may be below 100, according to several people who analyzed the scene.

@GhassanAbuSitt1 admiration for the voluntary surgeries you're performing, not least putting yourself in harm's way

Back operating today. They will not break us

this is very insightful @jburnmurdoch , thankyou. i have found the last 20 hrs distressing (1) because the "slip up" here is already triggering real world consequences, and (2) some of the protagonists have form (notably @BBCWorld), suggesting bias

@sgcjerusalem on the balance of probabilities, it appears an islamic jihad rocket is responsible for the hospital explosion. + that buildings are intact, and mercifully, the number of dead may be considerably lower than the 500+ initially shared as "fact". perhaps a retraction is appropriate?

@sgcjerusalem @NRC_Egeland hi @sgcjerusalem waiting for your statement if it's determined that a hamas or islamic jihad rocket was the source of the hospital tragedy

Disaster: our hospital, Ahli Arab hospital has taken a direct hit from an Israeli missile. Early reports say hundreds of women and children killed. This is deliberate killing of vulnerable civilians. The bombs must stop now. There can be no possible justification for this.