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Katie G

@ktgarner.bsky.social
431 followers 1.3K following 104 posts

Words, Photos, Immigration, Emigration, Books, Politics, People, Dogs. Rwanda/UK. Portfolio: ktgphotography.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Katie G
Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Yes, dodgy immigration practitioners exist and some people do lie on asylum claims. Based on BBC reporting though, people"d think it was far more widespread than it is, and completely fail to grasp how hard it can be to get asylum based on being LGBTQIA+ alone. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Three arrested after raid on gang accused of helping migrants pretend to be gay to get asylum
Those targeted by Home Office immigration enforcement officers are accused of charging migrants up to £4,500 for fabricated evidence.
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
To be clear, resettlement schemes, as proposed here (where the screenshots are from), are good. But not everyone can wait around in dangerous situations, hoping to be plucked to safety by the UK government. Using resettlement as a reason to crack down on spontaneous asylum claims is therefore bad
theguardian.com
UK to open new refugee resettlement routes for Afghan women and Palestinians
Exclusive: Move by Shabana Mahmood comes after closure of Afghan scheme last year but experts say numbers too small to deter Channel crossings
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Celestial M Weasel @celestialweasel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Which of you lot (in the UK) have the technology to digitise reel to reel tapes? (See thread)
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Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Apple "detectives" wanted to identify a gnarly old tree growing on a remote plot of land in Maine. What they discovered was the key to a centuries-old apple mystery.
scientificamerican.com
How apple detectives solved the mystery of an ancient tree—and rewrote the history of fruit
And how they might have helped save the future of American apples
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Steven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Christening a baby is nothing like christening a ship. I know that now. Once again I can only apologise.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
TIL that a male crossing guard is called a lollipop man.
manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Horrified children look on as lollipop man struck by car on school crossing
Shocked children and parents saw the lollipop man suffer a suspected broken leg
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BSonblast @bsonblast.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Today's quick update [Sep 19]: - Battles continue in North Kordofan, with SAF advancing towards RSF-held Sodiri. - RSF drone strike attempts continue in Blue Nile State. #KeepEyesOnSudan
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Jamie Setzler @thecatbus.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
From sunny Rwanda and the cab of my dusty truck - I support RNLI
A picture of a man with his head tilted forward wearing a hat featuring an RNLI 200 logo.
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Dr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The RNLI have some of the best people in Britain volunteering for them. They put their lives on the line when they are called on and they will rescue anyone who needs them. Because every life matters, and offering help is the right thing to do. You can donate here: rnli.org
rnli.org
RNLI - Royal National Lifeboat Institution - Saving Lives at Sea
The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea. We do this through lifeboat search and rescue, lifeguards, water safety education and international interventions.
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Briony Neilson @brionyneilson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Allen Lane, co-founder of Penguin Books, extracts a book from the brand new "Penguincubator" – a vending machine with a range of Penguin titles available for sixpence, placed outside Collet's bookshop on London's Charing Cross Road in July 1937 🗃️
b&w page with a photo of a man in a suit extracting a book from a vending machine
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William Shakespeare @shakespeare.lol · 25/08/2026
[Exit Queen.]
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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
technology is incredible
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Wendell Berry.
An off white page of a book is being held open with three pink fingers. The text on the page says, ‘February 2, 1968 In the dark of the moon, in flying snow, in the dead of winter, war spreading, families dying, the world in danger, I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover.’

The poem was written by Wendell Berry
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Sam Wetherell @samwetherell.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Brits will merrily watch vast parts of the Amazon, Siberia, California, Ontario and Australia burn and parts of South Asia and the Middle East hit near life threatening wet bulb temperatures then have their views on emissions changed by a BBC news package about a small wildfire in Stourbridge.
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 12/08/2026
British skies are growing too hot for swifts ft.trib.al/zJQTkMd | opinion
ft.trib.al
British skies are growing too hot for swifts
Warmer summers are attracting more migratory birds but the nests are emptying before their time
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Nisrin Elamin @nisrinelamin.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
The Sudan Solidarity Collective is continuing to support mutual aid work in North Darfur and Kordofan and has recently started supported the tea vendors union as they rebuild their livelihoods. To support go to: www.sudansolidarity.com.
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Reuters @reuters.com · 06/07/2026
Congo says confirmed Ebola cases rise to 1,561, including 506 deaths reut.rs/4xWUXEG
reut.rs
Congo says confirmed Ebola cases rise to 1,561, including 506 deaths
The ​Democratic Republic ‌of ​Congo ​said late ⁠on ​Sunday ​that confirmed ​Ebola ​cases in the ‌country ⁠had reached ​1,561, ​including ⁠506 ​deaths.
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Happy liberation from the British day, to all who celebrate.
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Howard French @hofrench.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
D.R.C.!
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Dr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
The oddity here is I suspect a *genuinely* representative selection of the British public would probably lead to the success rate of appeals going up (it's pretty high already because the HO are unreasonable), bc a lot of people say they think fraud is high but are sympathetic to individual stories
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
And Sunderland and South Shields where I met a nonagenarian who wanted me to tell world leaders that most people are actually immigrants, when you look at their history. I said I’d try.
A dark wood park bench sits in front of an ornate sand-coloured colonnade along the sea front at South Shields.The River Tyne in Sunderland had been the site of industrial shipbuilding for generations, now quiet. This view from the flyover shows the river with some industry either side, and cloudy blue skies in the distance.In a space between two buildings (left is white and grubby, the right red brick with a visible chimney) a view of the grey blue sea and the red and white striped lighthouse in the distance. In the foreground a road with yellow lines shows a downhill slope.
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Rochdale is remarkable, rich in political history (hello, Peterloo) and incredible beautiful, but it has also become a focal point for questions of immigration, division, and national identity.
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Rochdale and Oldham, where I accidentally joined a choir + had a lunchtime chat with a bus driver who had moved from Pakistan as a child with no English, and been educated by the local library.
Five brown and beige social housing tower blocks can be seen filling the picture with a small grey double storey building in the foreground, and grey clouds looming behind them. They are five of the ‘Seven Sisters’ that have become an iconic part of Rochdale’s skyline.The image shows a line of buildings from the Green/blue glass of the modern library building to the let to an older red brick three storey building leading up the hill to white fronted buildings to the right. In front of them is a road with taxis moving through it and in the foreground a pedestrian are with a bus stop and people walking towards the buildings. Two women wearing hijabs, one with a pushchair and an older woman with a shopping trolley. A workman walks in the opposite direction.The entranceway to the tram station in Oldham is a ramp with railings either side (at the centre of the photo) and tram tracks either side. To the left is a large red brick building which overlooks the tram station, to the right is a Sainsbury’s building with a curved roof. The sky behind is blue with white clouds. The tram sighs and highlight colours are yellow.
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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Long shot, but if anyone in North #Oxford has lost a tortoise with a surprising turn of speed in the heat, do get in touch..
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I also had a man scream at me outside of Tescos. He felt that he had been duped by the Brexit voting process, that the information hadn’t been clear, “they should have made an A4 piece of paper, an A4 sheet of facts!” he kept saying as his wife dragged him away by the arm.
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
My previous experience of Blackpool had been during a rainy camping holiday in Preston (not advised) and the Tory party conference (also not advised). This was better. I walked a woman with dementia to the end of a pier, was regaled with stories in a local pub, and met a lot of artists.
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Blackpool + Fleetwood
A pier at night with the tide out, a building on top of the pier is lit with brightly coloured attractions, the bottom of a ferris wheel can be seen in the top left of the picture, and a family are seen walking and running underneath the pier on the sand. The sky is a moody, cloudy grey blue colour.A white boat that had been converted to a train is moving left to right on the image festooned with neon lights and a sign that says “LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS”, the sky behind is a grey cloud, and in front of the boat are train stop and go lights. Pebbled beach is in the foreground. A pristine green lawn striped by mowing leads to a single story long, flat white pavilion building along the vertical at the centre of the photo, with a blue cloudy sky above it.
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
I should say, it was mostly hilarious, fraught, politically complex conversations over cups of tea. All of which helped me understand the divisions in the country at that time. The photos were a bonus.
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
A decade ago, the UK voted to leave the European Union. In 2019, I travelled around the country to try + find out why. Over the next few days I’ll post some of the photos that I picked up along the way. Hastings and St. Leonards-on-sea
Two men are smoking out of an open sash window on the third floor of a large old terraced house along the seafront in St.Leonards on the south coast of England. The edge of a white and red English flag can be seen in the right bay window. The paintwork of the building has lots of marks and scratches and is quite run down. Striped beach huts in multiple colours line a pier over the green-blue sea of the channel on the south coast of England, behind them is a building with four Union flags on top of it, blowing in the wind. The pier has brownish red metal frame that disappears into the sea. A long, brownish-yellow walkway by the sea with a solid yellow pebbledash wall to the red, and staggered green pillars to the left, which reveal an intermittent view of the sea on the south coast of England. A woman with a shopping buggy wearing a beige coat can be seen walking in the distance with various shades of green pillar behind her.
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KB @noiranova.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Loved this shot so much 🤣
Andy Burham wins Makerfield election, stood between Count Binface and a Fox
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BSonblast @bsonblast.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Today's quick update [Jun 18]: - RSF drone strikes continue to target ElObeid, North Kordofan; reports of heavy mobilization of RSF forces around the city. - UN: 12.4 million people in Sudan require gender-based violence support. #KeepEyesOnSudan
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
CONGO!!!!
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
From memory, the success rate of asylum appeals is about 45%, which is pretty damning of initial Home Office decisions. But I suppose that’s the point, if we don’t have appeals, we’ll never know.
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Frankie de la Cretaz @thefrankiedlc.news · 15/06/2026
For Vogue, I talked to Ramell-Correen Frederick, aka Cheeks, who embroidered Knicks gear in the streets of Brooklyn after Game 5. He uses a 104-year-old hand-crank, chainstitch embroidery machine that he named Jessica.
vogue.com
The New York Artist Embroidering Knicks Merch on the Street
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Love getting to write cross-specialism book reviews, transforms the way I view NY Mayor Mamdani’s economic policies, and what that might mean for developing cities around the world. Read the book! And write reviews!
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
There ain’t no side-eye like a blind German Shepherd side-eye.
Stevie, the blind black and tan German Shepherd mix sits in an open-fronted straw basket with his paws hanging out onto the floor. Although his face and ears are pointed towards the viewer, his eyes are looking to his left, camera right, as if to indicate some dissatisfaction with the world, and/or reduced breakfast portions. The wall behind is white, and the tiles below the basket were white about an hour ago before a menagerie of four dogs and two cats traipsed through the house leaving remnants of the garden and their DNA as gifts.
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Joseph Lewczak (Truth Seeker) @truthseeker59.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
This artwork is titled Strada con lampioni (Street with Lampposts), painted by the Italian artist Salvo (Salvatore Mangione) in 2001.
The painting features a deceptively simple style, with buildings depicted as plain, solid-colored cubes arranged in a nighttime scene.
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The Continent @thecontinent.org · 15/05/2026
All Protocol Observed Welcome to Issue 239 of The Continent Macron is back in Africa: energetic, ambitious, and still trying to convince the world Paris is relevant. Meanwhile, in Mayotte — legally France, geographically Africa — asylum seekers wait for la République to notice them. bit.ly/239_TC
This is the cover of Issue 239 of The Continent drawn by Gaddo.
At the very top, in a gold banner, it says: “African Journalism | 16 May 2026 | Issue 239.” Below that, in huge black letters against a vivid blue sky, is the title: The Continent.
The main illustration shows a vintage black car driving across an African savannah. The car looks overloaded with crates and bags tied to the roof and sides using ropes. Each package is labelled with political or economic themes: “Military Bases,” “Bio Tech,” “AI,” “Climate Finance,” “Energy,” “Oil,” and “Creative Sector.” A yellow plate on the front of the car reads “Africa Forward.”
Driving the car is a smiling Emmanuel Macron wearing a safari-style outfit and helmet. Beside him sits William Ruto holding what looks like a ceremonial club or baton.
The drawing style strongly references the classic Tintin comics by Hergé. In the bottom corner, is a note: “with apology to Hergé.” 
The title above the car reads: “The Adventures of Macron” and then, in larger letters, “Macron in the Kenya.” The wording is intentionally awkward and exaggerated, mimicking old European adventure comics.
Around the vehicle are African animals: an elephant and giraffe stand to the left, a monkey sits on the elephant’s back, and two small animals at the bottom right appear to gossip while one says in a speech bubble: “There goes the neighbourhood!”
This is the cover of Tintin in the Congo by Hergé.

The cover has a bright, simple comic-book style with a pale blue sky and an open African savanna landscape. At the center is an old-fashioned black safari car driving across grassy terrain. Inside the vehicle are:

Tintin, wearing his signature light-colored outfit and helmet, driving the car. Snowy, the small white dog sits behind him. Another passenger seated beside him.

A tall giraffe stands to the left of the vehicle, watching as the car passes. Scattered trees and bushes fill the background.

The title “Tintin Au Congo” appears in very large bold black lettering across the top half of the cover, with “Les Aventures de Tintin” and “Hergé” written above it in smaller text.
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bianqa.bsky.social @bianqa.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Gift link - www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | This Is What Happened When Trump Abandoned the World’s Poorest Children
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Zimbabwe has enough problems without hadedas @shonatiger.hararereview.com · 08/05/2026
Actual elections. Must be nice.
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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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Stephanie Nolen @stephanienolen.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
I first reported on H.I.V. in Zambia in 2002, when no one had treatment in sub-Saharan Africa. I saw hospitals where gaunt, dying patients packed the corridors. But Zambia — bolstered by international donors and the U.S. PEPFAR program — turned the tide www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/h...
nytimes.com
AIDS Creeps Back in Parts of Zambia, a Year After U.S. Cuts to H.I.V. Assistance
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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
my latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com
Two hooded figures with lamps approach a moonlit, isolated cottage.
A woman answers the door.
We have come for the child, says the hooded figure
So soon? she asks
It is time, says the hooded figure.
The woman is distraught. We should never have got him a library card!
What is done cannot be undone, says the hooded figure
We couldn’t see the harm! We just wanted him to enjoy reading! 
For most, it ends there, says the hooded figure, turning away and walking into the wilderness
Oh lord, What have I done! says the woman,
the child walks past her and out into the darkness with them.
Do not cry mother. 
I am a writer now.
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
And of course, once again I want to read all of these.
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Claudia Halbac @nycclaudia.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
The global food crisis unleashed by the war - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT
giftarticle.ft.com
The global food crisis unleashed by the war
From Minnesota to Punjab, fertiliser costs are up and harvests are set to be hit
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Sally Hayden @sallyhayd.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Loud warplanes are back #beirut
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Katie G @ktgarner.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2026...
thenewhumanitarian.org
When gender equity NGOs close, more disappears than can be measured
Women leaders are not failing, the systems around them are.
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Dom Ervolina @dominicervolina.com · 20/03/2026
Happy Birthday to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and a massive thank you to her for inventing rock and roll She was born on March 20th, 1915
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BSonblast @bsonblast.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Today's quick update [Mar 12]: - 13 people reported killed in SAF drone strike on fuel market in Adekong, near the Sudan-Chad border. - RSF shelling continues in Dilling, S. Kordofan. - SAF drone strikes reported in Nyala, S. Darfur & Sileya, W. Darfur. #KeepEyesOnSudan
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