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Marcus Leroux

@marcusleroux.bsky.social
251 followers 122 following 81 posts

Reporter at SourceMaterial (www.source-material.org), a small investigative journalism organisation that cannot be held accountable for anything I write here.

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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
can I be the first to congratulation Mary Lou on her promotion to UK regional leader.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Mike Huckabee, Trump’s representative in Israel, was on Today pushing against sanctions on West Bank settlements. He just asked rhetorically where the sanctions are against North Korea and Russia. You can’t get out of Tesco nowadays without tripping over kimchi from Pyongyang.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The businessman Yorgen Fenech was acquitted on Wednesday of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese investigative journalist. @juliettegarside.bsky.social's piece from Malta is a must-read on Fenech's contact with the man who hired the assassins. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Sabotage, leaks and political ties: the story of the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder trial
Maltese businessman cleared of involvement in journalist’s death, but trial revealed challenges faced by those leading search for killers
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Andy Burnham said, perhaps a wee bit clumsily, that a border poll was "off the table". Harold Wilson, by contrast, had a plan to deliver a United Ireland by some time around 1986. What changed? marcusleroux.substack.com/p/how-nation...
marcusleroux.substack.com
How nationalism lost Labour: a story in five quotes
Wilson had a plan to deliver a united Ireland by the mid-1980s; Burnham says a border poll is “off the table”. What changed?
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
In Northern Ireland, the union has long been more popular than unionism - "Neithers", unwedded by instinct to either constitutional position, lean to remaining in the UK. But what repels Neithers from unionism could over time repel them from the union. www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politic...
belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Former UUP councillor: ‘If my future is in politics, it will be with the SDLP’
Linzi McLaren, who quit over party’s failure to match its words about reaching out with actions, is now firmly in the camp of those seeking a ‘new Ireland’
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
we're now at the "youth hosteling with Chris Eubank" and "arm-wrestling with Chas and Dave" stage of brainstorming justifications for drilling in the North Sea.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
The latest Mandelson disclosures reminded me of this www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2k...
youtube.com
'Brian's Hat' Full Sketch - I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson Season 2
YouTube video by Netflix Is A Joke
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Duncan Robinson @duncanrobinson.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
www.economist.com/britain/2026... Wrote about how the 1990s has a chokehold on Britain, whether it is a luvvies reminiscing at the Groucho or a Jim Davidson gig in Purfleet
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Thameslink Southern Great Northern... a name that screams "clear sense of direction".
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SourceMaterial @source-material.org · 24/04/2026
At the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Essar owed $3.1 billion to VTB, the Kremlin-controlled Russian bank. Our latest story, with the Guardian, reveals that its response to sanctions on VTB was to shift the loans out of the EU from Cyprus to Mauritius. www.source-material.org/essar-stanlo...
source-material.org
UK oil refiner shifted Russian loans offshore – SourceMaterial
Essar shifted billions to tax haven following Ukraine invasion
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
this all sort of falls apart if you are aware that St Patrick was a Brit bsky.app/profile/mayo...
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AFP News Agency @en.afp.com · 16/03/2026
INVESTIGATION: Indonesian firms targeted in a palm oil fraud probe supplied European firms, an investigation by AFP and SourceMaterial (@Source_Mat) has found. The European firms include Italian energy giant Eni and Finnish sustainable aviation fuel leader Neste u.afp.com/SLMh
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SourceMaterial @source-material.org · 16/03/2026
New: Last month, Indonesian authorities arrested 11 people on suspicion of bribery and disguising palm oil as a less strictly regulated byproduct. SourceMaterial can reveal that exporters targeted in this probe supplied major international companies. www.source-material.org/indonesian-e...
source-material.org
Indonesian exporters in palm oil probe supplied European fuel majors
Indonesian exporters targeted in a palm oil bribery probe supplied major international companies, a SourceMaterial investigation has found.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
In fairness Jim Ratcliffe, of Monaco, and formerly of Zug, Switzerland, knows a thing or two about moving to a country for economic advantage. news.sky.com/story/the-uk...
news.sky.com
'UK has been colonised by immigrants', says INEOS boss and Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe
In an interview with Sky News's Ed Conway, Sir Jim says Britain faces profound political, social and economic challenges, among them an unprecedented rise in immigration in recent years.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
The year before the EU referendum, the UK car industry was predicting record production of 2 million units a year by 2020. It's kind of mad how little political weather this makes. www.thetimes.com/business/com...
thetimes.com
UK car output at its lowest in 70 years, but there is a spark of hope
The government’s target of getting production back up to 1.3 million by 2035 looks increasingly unlikely — unless the Chinese get involved
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Rosa is ridiculously talented and lovely to work with. Sign her up before it's too late.
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George Greenwood @georgegreenwood.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
A major Tory donor has been sanctioned in the UK and EU for his alleged role in the Russian oil trade. The oil magnate Murtaza Lakhani was hit with a UK asset freeze and travel ban on the grounds that his activities were assisting Russia. www.thetimes.com/uk/law/artic...
thetimes.com
Major Tory donor sanctioned over role in Russian oil trade
The government sanctioning statement alleges that Murtaza Lakhani’s activities in the oil sector have supported the Kremlin
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
I wonder has Boris Johnson ever seemed in need of assistance while boarding a flight. bsky.app/profile/flyi...
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
🔴 BREAKING: Our fake Chinese AI investor bought access to 10+ Labour MPs and minister Brand new investigation by Democracy for Sale and Led By Donkeys. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/breaking-o...
democracyforsale.substack.com
BREAKING: Our fake Chinese AI investor bought access into heart of Labour government
Ex-Tory MP facilitated meetings with 10+ Labour MPs and met ministers in “cash-for-access operation”
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Amazon, the biggest data centre provider in the world, is actually *even bigger* than we thought. New investigation based on leaked documents by my colleague @lukewbarratt.bsky.social. www.source-material.org/amazon-data-...
source-material.org
Amazon has twice as many data centres worldwide as previously reported
Amazon uses far more data centres across the globe—and has a bigger impact on the environment—than previously reported, leaked data reveals.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Coal-fired data centres at least sound a bit steampunk. Wood-fired data centres just sound deranged. finance.yahoo.com/news/drax-sh...
finance.yahoo.com
Drax Shares Surge on Data Center Hopes
Drax Group Plc shares surged to their highest level in over three years as investors bet that UK utilities could become major beneficiaries of the country’s rapidly expanding data center industry.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Can't recommend today's SourceMaterial offering enough, by @marcusleroux.bsky.social. It's the story of the son of a lorry driver from Calabria who has often struggled to distance himself from the Italian mafia and is now poised to buy 11 North Sea gasfields www.source-material.org/mazzagatti-v...
source-material.org
North Sea Storm – SourceMaterial
Poised to take control of ‘the backbone of the UK’s energy production’, Franceso Mazzagatti is defending allegations bribery, forgery and fraud
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Francesco Mazzagatti is awaiting approval to buy a terminal that provides a fifth of Britain's gas. We took a close look at episodes in his career that experts say ought to be of interest to the regulator in charge of stewarding the UK's oil and gas. www.source-material.org/mazzagatti-v...
source-material.org
North Sea Storm – SourceMaterial
Poised to take control of ‘the backbone of the UK’s energy production’, Franceso Mazzagatti is defending allegations bribery, forgery and fraud
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
"Transparency is a one-way door". A leaked Amazon document reveals its anxiety over disclosing how much water their data centres use.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
this is a dizzying yarn with a drunk Australian getting hit by a car in Paris at its centre and threads leading to the dictator of Congo-Brazzaville and a prominent Irish family via Monaco and Dubai. villagemagazine.ie/dubai-heir-c...
villagemagazine.ie
Dubai Heir, Congo Air - Village Magazine
When Paris police picked up a drunk Australian carrying €195,000 in cash, they uncovered an alleged money-laundering scheme led by a Dubai-based Irish horseracing heir linked to British royals.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
I'd love to have attended the meeting where this came up.
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SourceMaterial @source-material.org · 21/08/2025
At dawn in Accra, Ghana, Lydia Bamfo (51) sets out to collect plastic waste. For 25 years she’s battled the tide of rubbish overwhelming her city. Now she says the World Bank’s “solution” has done nothing to help workers like her. 🧵
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
William of Ockham: we're gonna need a bigger blade.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Some heartwarming football content from earlier in the week. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Irish League and German clubs to fulfil European Cup tie, 65 years later
Glenavon's 1960-61 European Cup tie against East German champions Wismut failed to go ahead due to the Cold War.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
On the Kneecap website you can buy a £25 “RUC not welcome tee”, in reference to a police force that was reformed and renamed before Mo Chara was in primary school. marcusleroux.substack.com/p/the-real-t...
marcusleroux.substack.com
The real trouble with Kneecap
The perils of the single transferable victim
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
A lie can be half way around the world before a preliminary crisis analysis has its trousers on.
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Rosa Furneaux @rosafurneaux.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Fresnillo, one of the UK’s largest mining groups, has been told it should pay as much as $630 million to a Mexican community whose land it illegally mined for gold, according to documents obtained by SourceMaterial → www.source-material.org/fresnillo-so...
source-material.org
Fresnillo faces $630m demand to restore 'illegally-mined' gold – SourceMaterial
The goldmining giant lost access to a Mexican mine in 2013 — now a court-appointed review says it must return $630m of gold it mined there.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
I wonder if this cross-examination is building up to the 1976 Republican News column where Adams wrote, cryptically: "I'm an IRA volunteer". www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/courts/...
belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Gerry Adams denies under oath that he was the senior IRA figure released for talks in 1970s
Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has denied under oath that he was the senior officer of the Provisional IRA released from internment as a precondition for talks with British officials about a ceas...
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Isobel Oakeshott is a Reform cheerleader - but in 2018 she said the Kremlin “struck gold” with Arron Banks, who Reform’s West of England mayoral candidate. The article is still online. New from @marcusleroux.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale democracyforsale.substack.com/p/does-isabe...
democracyforsale.substack.com
Does Isabel Oakeshott still believe Arron Banks was “used by the Russians”?
Oakeshott is a Reform cheerleader but in 2018 she said the Kremlin “struck gold” with the party’s West of England mayoral candidate. The article is still online.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
this is why I take AI results with a pinch of bitumen.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
When the White House and the Kremlin announced the Black Sea ceasefire deal, it was noted that the Kremlin statement had set specific conditions. Condition No.1: That Russia's state agricultural bank be removed from sanctions lists and reconnected to the global banking communication system. 🧵
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
If eclectic cricketing yarns is what you need to get through present madness, then the latest edition of The Nightwatchman is, as ever, packed with fascinating stuff - and includes something by me on the surprisingly deep roots of cricket in Porto. www.thenightwatchman.net/wp-content/u...
thenightwatchman.net
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Sarah Finch @sarahfinch.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
"A system that ploughs ahead in wilful ignorance of human-caused mass extinction and climate change is only a solution in a particularly nihilistic sense of the word." Good piece on Starmer's aim to make it even harder for green groups to challenge bad infrastructure projects.
marcusleroux.substack.com
Keir Starmer has chosen the wrong hippy to bash
The PM picked a fight with one of the "virtue-signalling zealots" hobbling British growth. There's one small problem.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Keir Starmer's unintentionally revealing choice of ecovillain. marcusleroux.substack.com/p/keir-starm...
marcusleroux.substack.com
Keir Starmer has chosen the wrong hippy to bash
The PM picked a fight with one of the "virtue-signalling zealots" hobbling British growth. There's one small problem.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Compelling work by my tenacious colleague Costanza Gambarini with Poline Tchoubar and @asiaballuffier.bsky.social of @lemonde.fr (French with English subtitles available). www.dailymotion.com/video/x9ct360
dailymotion.com
Au Mozambique, des civils séquestrés par des soldats financés par TotalEnergie
Dailymotion video by Le Monde
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
We’re looking for an investigative journalist to join us. Details below. www.cisionjobs.co.uk/job/111593/s...
cisionjobs.co.uk
SourceMaterial, Senior Investigative Journalist - London (Central), London (Greater) job with SourceMaterial | 111593
SourceMaterial is looking for a senior investigative journalist.
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SourceMaterial @source-material.org · 09/01/2025
We're hiring! If you're an investigative journalist with a nose for a story and a taste for collaborative working, we'd love to hear from you. www.cisionjobs.co.uk/job/111593/s...
cisionjobs.co.uk
SourceMaterial, Senior Investigative Journalist - London (Central), London (Greater) job with SourceMaterial | 111593
SourceMaterial is looking for a senior investigative journalist.
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 10/01/2025
Tomorrow starts the AFD party conference. They will decide on a final election programme. So let’s have a look at what the proposal says on security and defence policy.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Reminded of JK Galbraith's description of "private affluence, public squalor" in The Affluent Society. "The city of Los Angeles, in modern times, was the near-classic study in the problem of social balance." bsky.app/profile/pale...
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Successive posters on window at a closed Blackwell’s bookshop suggest Waterstones never quite won hearts and minds on the shopfloor.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
When I was last in Belfast I popped by the birthplace of Chaim Herzog, former president of Israel and father of current president Isaac Herzog. open.substack.com/pub/marcusle...
open.substack.com
Whitewash in Belfast
A tale of two nationalisms and the shifting sands of international sympathy
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
This feels significant. Leaked documents show Ed Miliband has promised to pay out up to £6 billion if courts block controversial plans by oil giants BP and Equinor to store carbon dioxide under the North Sea. Great story by @marcusleroux.bsky.social www.source-material.org/bp-equinor-t...
source-material.org
'Reckless' UK risks billions on BP gas scheme – SourceMaterial
Government could pay out £6 billion if courts block flagship carbon capture project that critics say won't help the climate
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Last week the government announced that a landmark gas-power and carbon storage project in Teesside was getting the go-ahead. What it didn't announce was the £6bn bet against climate litigation that needed to get the deal over the line. www.source-material.org/bp-equinor-t...
source-material.org
'Reckless' UK risks billions on BP gas scheme – SourceMaterial
Government could pay out £6 billion if courts block flagship carbon capture project that critics say won't help the climate
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
worth a follow in my slightly biased opinion 👇
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
This is very good by @sjamcbride.bsky.social ky.social on how little Northern Ireland features in the UK media. It reminded me of a couple of moments when I was at The Times. When I joined as a trainee, the older reporters knew NI all too well. 1/3 email.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/H/2/v6000001...
email.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Loop of ignorance sees hot takes by those who’ve never been to NI regurgitated by MPs who make the law
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