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Ashifa Kassam

@ashifakassam.bsky.social
581 followers 872 following 96 posts

Correspondent covering communities and stories across Europe for The Guardian. Previously based in Spain & Canada for @TheGuardian.com. Thoughts & ideas always welcome

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Ashifa Kassam
Tim White @timwhite100.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Nice to be quoted in this excellent sum-up by @ashifakassam.bsky.social on the surging politics of housing in Europe www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
How Europe’s housing crisis is fuelling a new movement
As soaring rents and house prices across Europe​ feed into the political discourse, campaigners believe they have a rare opportunity to force housing to the top of the agenda
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Miranda Bryant @mirandeee.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
After 4 years of investigation and hundreds of interviews, Sweden's Truth Commission published its report today calling on government to apologise for “harm and injustice inflicted upon the Sámi people” and start national process for “redress and reconciliation” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Sweden must apologise for harm done to Sami people, says state-backed report
Truth commission accuses country of failing Indigenous people, amid rising tensions over land rights
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Miranda Bryant @mirandeee.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
To mark handover of Truth Commission for the Sami People report, Johan Turi's works on display for first time in nearly a century. Outi Pieski, whose art is also featured, told me: “It’s very sad that we are kind of in the same spot still now, 100 years later." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
‘The same struggles as 100 years ago’: exhibition highlights lives of Sami people in Sweden
Show at Kin Museum in Kiruna marks handover of long-awaited report on abuses committed by the state against the Indigenous people
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German at Portsmouth @germanatportsmouth.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Scrapping of Berlin swimming day for Black children becomes latest in long list of race-linked pool rows www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a... via @ashifakassam.bsky.social @theguardian.com
theguardian.com
Scrapping of Berlin swimming day for Black children becomes latest in long list of race-linked pool rows
Rightwing voices seize on plans to offer Black children an exclusive afternoon at an outdoor pool in the German capital
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Jérôme OLLIER @jeromeollier.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Iberian orca known for ramming boats seen with suspected gunshot wounds - @ashifakassam.bsky.social @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Iberian orca known for ramming boats seen with suspected gunshot wounds
Marine conservationist says deliberate attack would be ‘act of extreme cruelty’ against endangered population
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Can't think of a thing that will radicalize a generation faster than "you've gotta let that old man in the corner over there see what's inside those pants before you play Kindergarten volleyball."
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@BrendaChavez_ @brendachavez.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I'm sharing this story, which I came across with a @journalismfund.bsky.social grant. Thank you, Fatima, for sharing your courage 🙏🏽 Thanks, Adoratrices and the UCRIF in Valladolid 🙌🏽 And to @ashifakassam.bsky.social + @tomlevitt.bsky.social for your great support! www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
theguardian.com
‘Why are you doing this to me?’: how one woman survived two years of slavery on a Spanish farm
Fatima left her family behind in Morocco for seasonal work in Spain. But the dreams of a better life quickly turned into exploitation, squalid conditions and violence
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Iago Mora @iagomora.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
So happy to share this piece by @ashifakassam.bsky.social for The Guardian on my work on Spain's first trans political org! www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
theguardian.com
Revealed: history of Spain’s fearless 1970s trans-rights political collective
Pioneering activists risked arrest and imprisonment amid lingering persecution after Franco dictatorship
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 08/07/2026
Nato leaders agree not to mention World Cup to Donald Trump to avoid irritating him
theguardian.com
Nato leaders agree not to mention World Cup to Donald Trump to avoid irritating him
As alliance gathers in Ankara, European leaders have an informal strategy to try to keep US president on side * Europe live – latest updates Nato leaders have informally agreed not to mention the football World Cup to Donald Trump for fear of irritating the US president at a crucial time for the military alliance. Officials said European leaders had discussed in the sidelines of the summit in Ankara how to keep Trump on side amid concerns he could further destabilise Nato with threats over defence spending. Continue reading...
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Stanley Pignal @spignal.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
VEEERRRRY punchy statement by UEFA on the reversal of the American red-card suspension. And quite right, too. "We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision." www.uefa.com/news-media/n...
uefa.com
UEFA statement on the Balogun case
Statement on decision related to Folarin Balogun
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Amnistía Internacional España @amnistiainternacional.es · 01/07/2026
‼️Se cumplen 11 años de la entrada en vigor de la #LeyMordaza. Reclamamos al gobierno y a los grupos parlamentarios que cumplan su compromiso de revertir las vulneraciones de los derechos a la libertad de expresión, reunión e información ¡Abrimos hilo! #DerogaciónLeyMordazaYa
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JefeDeLosGatos @jefedelosgatos.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
“There is a more substantial body of evidence now than perhaps ever before about the harms and the addictive qualities of social media. But I would say that science is not entirely settled, we’re still learning.” By @ashifakassam.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
theguardian.com
Social media bans go global: big tech faces a reckoning after Australia’s crackdown
As a host of countries move to rein in social media use by children, could this be technology’s big tobacco moment?
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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
from my own perspective this is one of the greatest harms done by this government and plotting a course to reverse this damage is must be a very priority in our speech and our activism
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Black Intellect Media @blackintellect.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
‘A point of resistance’: the Normandy village that said ‘non’ to Pete Hegseth: US defence secretary cancelled appearance at D-day event in Langrune-sur-Mer after protest by residents. Reporting by @ashifakassam.bsky.social & @kimwillsher.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
theguardian.com
‘A point of resistance’: the Normandy village that said ‘non’ to Pete Hegseth
US defence secretary cancelled appearance at D-day event in Langrune-sur-Mer after protest by residents
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Maqsood Asi @maqsoodasi.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
‘Factory of lies’: what will #PéterMagyar do about #Hungary ’s state #media ? #Journalists brace for sweeping reforms after years of pro-government control under #ViktorOrbán By @ashifakassam.bsky.social and @floragaramvolgyi.bsky.social share.google/CUfWd3DdFlYA...
share.google
‘Factory of lies’: what will Péter Magyar do about Hungary’s state media?
Journalists brace for sweeping reforms after years of pro-government control under Viktor Orbán
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Rachel Savage @rachelmsavage.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Relatives of, sanctioned individuals and entities linked to RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemedti, have amassed a £17.7m property portfolio in Dubai
theguardian.com
Sudan paramilitary leaders acquired £17.7m property portfolio in Dubai, investigation reveals
The RSF leadership, accused of committing genocide, used UAE as a ‘safe haven’ for family members and their wealth, records show
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European Disability Forum @myedf.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Join our team! We are looking for a Communications Officer. Deadline: 11 May. Apply: www.edf-feph.org/vacancy-comm...
European Disability Forum is hiring a Communications Officer
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ Director: “This is about how you lose your country — through small acts of complicity: when a government murders people on the streets, when oligarchs take over the media… we all face a moral choice. But even a nobody is more powerful than you think."
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Maqsood Asi @maqsoodasi.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Trump’s ‘ #racist hate speech’ and #migration crackdowns violate #HumanRights UN panel says Watchdog ‘disturbed’ by president and US political leaders’ use of dehumanising language to target #migrants @ashifakassam.bsky.social share.google/DZBm7Jfs5ahq...
share.google
Trump’s ‘racist hate speech’ and migration crackdowns violate human rights, UN panel says
Watchdog ‘disturbed’ by president and US political leaders’ use of dehumanising language to target migrants
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I'm one of many professors quoted in this report from Alice Speri. I really appreciate The Guardian taking an angle which has basically eluded every other major outlet.
theguardian.com
‘I wish I could push ChatGPT off a cliff’: professors scramble to save critical thinking in an age of AI
As AI has upended the way students learn, academics worry about the future of the humanities - and society at large
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Janine Gibson @janinegibson.ft.com · 11/03/2026
VERY IMPORTANT. The Paul Foot Award is free to enter, insanely credible and career-enhancing and judged impeccably fairly and on merit. This is how to enter www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/pau...
private-eye.co.uk
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 07/03/2026
Staff at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility have placed bets on which detainee will be the next to die by suicide, according to new reporting from the Associated Press based on 911 calls and detainee accounts.
motherjones.com
At Largest ICE Detention Camp, Staff Bet on Detainee Suicides, AP Reports
Camp East Montana has received several 911 calls in the span of five months about immigrants trying to harm themselves.
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Global Abortion Rights News @globalabortionnews.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
“It’s a choice to ensure zero abortions." Since July, more than a dozen pregnant children have been moved to a single facility in the small town of San Benito, along the south Texas border. The children kept in Texas are as young as 13, and about half are pregnant because of rape.
theguardian.com
US moving pregnant immigrant girls to Texas to avoid providing abortions, critics say
Ex-official calls transfer of unaccompanied girls as young as 13, many pregnant due to rape, a human rights violation
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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.” - 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas. Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children. www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
Mia Valentina Paz Faria
A 7-year-old from Venezuela who was living in Austin, Texas 
Detained for 70 days

“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”UPDATE: Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children. This is in response to the ace reporting by 
@micarosenberg
 et al for ProPublica:
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
And here is my story: ‘Absolute hell’: Irishman with valid US work permit held by Ice since September www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...
irishtimes.com
‘Absolute hell’: Irishman with valid US work permit held by Ice since September
Seamus Culleton has been in a detention facility in Texas for nearly five months despite having no criminal record
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Jim Acosta @jimacosta.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
BREAKING: The Epstein survivors are releasing this ad on this Super Bowl Sunday to send the message that they will not “move on” from the largest sex trafficking scandal in the world. #standwithsurvivors
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Congresswoman Maxine Dexter, M.D. @repdexteror.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
I was just denied entry to the Dilley detention facility while my constituent, seven-year-old Diana, remains inside. What kind of sick, horrific conditions are children being forced to endure in there? I will be back tomorrow. Accountability can’t wait.
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David Storey @davidstoreygeog.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Greenland: @ashifakassam.bsky.social on imperial claims and geopolitical rhetoric dominating over indigenous voices www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
theguardian.com
Trump’s Greenland threats open old wounds for Inuit across Arctic
Demand by US that it take control of Arctic island is for many a reminder of troubling imperial past
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María Ramírez @mariaramirez.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
“Despite the enormity of what had happened, the one thing everyone could agree on was that the people of Adamuz had done all they could to help,” writes @swajones.bsky.social from Adamuz, Córdoba. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
theguardian.com
‘We had to remove the dead to get to the living’: train crash shocks Spanish town
People in Adamuz rushed to help when two trains smashed into each other and say they will never forget what they saw
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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
is it normal for encyclopedias to include “skin tone” or just when they’re generated by a white nationalist’s ai?
Grokipedia vo.2

Family Origins and Childhood
Julia Carrie Wong was born to a Chinese immigrant father and a white Jewish mother, resulting in her biracial Chinese-Jewish heritage and brown skin tone. 181
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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 15/01/2026
Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
A family member reacts after a federal immigration officer used a battering ram to break down a door before making an arrest on January 11, 2026, in Minneapolis.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Whatever you might think of Maduro, the seizure and kidnapping of a head of state takes us to a very dark place. Vast, arbitrary, extra-legal power, which could be exercised almost anywhere, regardless of the character of the target government.
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Lisa O’Carroll @lisaocarroll.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Colombian President “does have to watch his ass” - Trump just now at presser Also says Maduro will be brought to New York
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Jon Henley @jonhenley.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Articles about Brigitte Bardot after her death on Sunday have referred to her far right sympathies, which supposedly emerged later in the film star's life. Here she is, though, in 1958 with Jean-Marie Le Pen and Pierre Lagaillarde, future founder of the extremist OAS terror group
1958 photo of Brigitte Bardot with Jean-Marie Le Pen and Pierre Lagaillarde
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Matthew Hay Brown @matthewhaybrown.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
OF ALL THE VESSELS SUNK BY THE U.S. it was the likeliest to have been carrying drugs: a semisubmersible with at least one convicted trafficker on board. The U.S. blew it up, destroyed the evidence and let the survivors go GIFT LINK @schmidtsam.bsky.social @alexhorton.bsky.social wapo.st/4qq5ymS
washingtonpost.com
The U.S. sank the alleged narco-terrorists’ boat — and let them go
In blowing up the vessel, destroying evidence and repatriating the survivors, the U.S. cut short a process that’s helped bring down traffickers.
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Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Extraordinary courage from Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim, 43-year-old father of two, who bravely risked his life to save his neighbors celebrating Hanukkah. Praying for his full & speedy recovery. And so deeply inspired by his example.
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Deborah Cole @deborahcole.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
The AfD has been flatlining at a high level for months nationally despite the Merz govt’s unpopularity - @diezeit.bsky.social asks whether it has tapped out its voter potential
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Ben Ward @bpward.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Russia’s banning of @hrw.org as an “undesirable” foreign organization, made public today, is yet another mark of the Kremlin’s repression. It only redoubles our determination to document the Russian authorities’ human rights violations and war crimes www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...
hrw.org
Russia: Government Designates Human Rights Watch “Undesirable”
(Berlin, November 28, 2025) — Russia’s designation of Human Rights Watch as an “undesirable” foreign organization, made public by the Justice Ministry on November 28, is yet another mark of the Kremli...
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Andrew Cutting @andrewcutting.coe.int · 19/11/2025
Judgments from the @echr.coe.int have influenced policy in areas like mental health, reproductive rights and access to essential medical treatments. Leaving the #ECHR would be a blow for health, justice and accountability, writes @martinmckee.bsky.social👇 🔗 www.bmj.com/content/391/... via @bmj.com
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Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
My Antifa book is on the New York Times Bestseller list 8 years after publication. Thank you to everyone who has supported me (and my family) in so many ways (including buying books). #NoPasarán
147 weeks on the list

9 ON TYRANNY
by Timothy SnyderCrown
Twenty lessons from the 20th century about the course of tyranny.

10 New this week

ANTIFA
by Mark Bray Melville House
The historian and scholar chronicles the anti-fascism movement from its opposition to Hitler and Mussolini to more recent events.

11 11 weeks on the list

FRAMED
by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey Vintage
Our criminal justice system viewed through the struggles of 10 wrongfully convicted people to achieve exoneration.
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Regina Schrambling @gastropoda.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Grim by @ashifakassam.bsky.social on the Antifa expert driven out of the land of the free (into, ironically, Spain). www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Death threats and accusations: the professor targeted by the US far right
Mark Bray has become one of the highest-profile people caught up in Donald Trump’s efforts to target Antifa
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Page One. @theguardian.com #ICE
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David Beard @dabeard.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Ahead of the 1st shutdown of US food aid to hungry Americans in 60 years, some of the 200,000 Little Free Library locations are converting into food pantries. Thanks @littlefreelibrary.bsky.social
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Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 30/10/2025
Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.
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Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
The narrative seems to be(come) that the Dutch election shows a “comeback of the political center”. We have seen this frame before, implying “the center” has an ideological substance and is stable. But “the center” keeps moving right on mostly nativist, but also often authoritarian, issues.
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Socks the Macro Wolf Dad @socksthewolf.com · 27/10/2025
Python was awarded a funding grant, funding grant asked Python foundation to remove all diversity and inclusion initiatives they have. Python foundation said no and rejected the grant. If you use Python, send a few dollars to the charity to keep it going. I’m pushing a dono on behalf of ScamGuard.
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Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
I look ahead at the Dutch elections this Wednesday and assess the missed opportunity of media, parties, and voters to move beyond far-right dominance.
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Sam Jones @swajones.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
‘Mud on our hands; blood on his’: fury lingers one year after Spain’s deadly floods www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
theguardian.com
‘Mud on our hands; blood on his’: fury lingers one year after Spain’s deadly floods
Survivors in Valencia call for consequences, particularly for regional president, after country’s worst natural disaster this century
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Ashis Basu @ashis.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
“The poll is seen as a litmus test for the Netherlands and its democratic ideals, as activists decry a hardening of political discourse driven by Geert Wilders” @ashifakassam.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
theguardian.com
‘Open hostility has become normalised’: Dutch Muslims fear rise of far right as general election looms
The poll is seen as a litmus test for the Netherlands and its democratic ideals, as activists decry a hardening of political discourse driven by Geert Wilders
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Daniel Saldivia Gonzatti @dasalgon.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
"Mainstream parties are increasingly allowing the far right to set the agenda" - for the @theguardian.com, @ashifakassam.bsky.social summed up our study. @tevoelker.bsky.social and I answered some questions to put our results into context. Give it a read! Study: bit.ly/4hhRFUN
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