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Samira Shackle

@samirashackle.bsky.social
8.3K followers 342 following 505 posts

Freelance journalist (mostly for the Guardian Long Read) and author of Karachi Vice. I am also on Substack @samirashackle.

PostsRepliesMedia
Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is one of the saddest stories I've worked on. Luna Wong died by suicide 10 months after coming to the UK for boarding school. Her death exposes a series of safeguarding gaps. If this affected British children, I can't help but feel there would be more outcry www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
‘They accepted the money but didn’t take care of my child’: what Luna Wong’s death reveals about the treatment of international students in the UK
When her parents waved her off to study in England they hoped it would be a fresh start the 16-year-old needed after struggling with her mental health in Hong Kong. Instead, 10 months later, she was d...
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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm having to read this story in little snippets, as it's so distressing -- more incredible reporting by @samirashackle.bsky.social who is doing the best work exploring the treatment of international pupils and students in the UK at the moment.
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Sasha Talebi @sashat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
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Windows explorer @ktheexplorer.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
this story is fucking appalling - people often treat international students as cash cows, while building no infrastructure to support the mental health challenges of a young person living far from home - often for the first time, in a completely foreign culture www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
‘They accepted the money but didn’t take care of my child’: what Luna Wong’s death reveals about the treatment of international students in the UK
When her parents waved her off to study in England they hoped it would be a fresh start the 16-year-old needed after struggling with her mental health in Hong Kong. Instead, 10 months later, she was d...
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Marta Zboralska @marta-zboralska.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This resonated with me because I also moved to the UK at 16 to go to boarding school (on a scholarship). I was fine, but one needs a /very/ high degree of independence to move to another country alone at that age, and I don’t recall being given much support. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
‘They accepted the money but didn’t take care of my child’: what Luna Wong’s death reveals about the treatment of international students in the UK
When her parents waved her off to study in England they hoped it would be a fresh start the 16-year-old needed after struggling with her mental health in Hong Kong. Instead, 10 months later, she was d...
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Joel Chan @kjoules.org · 26/09/2026
A heartbreaking story by @samirashackle.bsky.social of Luna Wong, a young Hongkonger whose parents hoped that by sending her to boarding school in the UK she could recover from her mental health problems. She took her own life less than a year later www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
‘They accepted the money but didn’t take care of my child’: what Luna Wong’s death reveals about the treatment of international students in the UK
When her parents waved her off to study in England they hoped it would be a fresh start the 16-year-old needed after struggling with her mental health in Hong Kong. Instead, 10 months later, she was d...
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Alona Ferber @aloner.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Britain's citizen's of nowhere - @samirashackle.bsky.social on the UK citizens made stateless www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/uk/...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Britain’s citizens of nowhere
Hundreds of UK nationals have been made stateless, and left trapped in squalid refugee camps, without being convicted of any crime
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
‘This is playing into his hands’/‘this will allow him to play the martyr card’/‘this will help with his fundraising’ are all really bad takes. Criminals should be arrested and charged with crimes.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Finally
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Nick Davies @njdavies.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Great to hear the PM say “We are going to be much prouder in standing up for our values and the rule of law” re foreign information warfare. I wonder if he or the Home Secretary might consider doing the same when it comes to masked vigilantes shutting down infrastructure and harassing the RNLI
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Extraordinary.
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
If this doesn’t lead to prosecutions I genuinely don’t know what will.
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Why has this live-streaming serial criminal not been arrested?
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Shocking thread.
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Thousands of university jobs lost too, and barely a peep either.
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
my brilliant colleague @robertshrimsley.bsky.social on the threat from Elon Musk’s X platform www.ft.com/content/f270...
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is awful.
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HK @hkesvani.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Not to be too on the nose here but can you imagine if a bunch of Muslims rocked up outside of a newspaper office like this, despite being far more justified in doing so
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
How has this been allowed to continue and escalate like this?
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Sarah Collins @sarahelizacollins.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Please share amongst your network of new writers!
Prospect is looking for new voices who are prepared to work really hard on their writing. If you are interested, please email me at sarah.collins@prospectmagazine.co.uk with a single link to your best piece of writing. 

I don’t care where you have published your work, and I am not interested in prestigious bylines. I simply want to see one example of your writing style, whether that is on your own blog or Substack, for a student paper, in a zine, or anywhere else. And I am explicitly seeking new voices: if you are already writing professionally, this is not one for you—please pitch our usual inbox instead.  

Due to the volume of emails we usually receive at Prospect, I will only consider submissions that follow the exact format below—if you send me more links, or a CV, I will not consider your email. 

In the subject line: New Voices: Your name 

In the email: One single link to a piece of writing you are proud of. 

Unfortunately, I will only be able to reply to writers with whom I would like to discuss a future paid writing opportunity. If you don’t hear from me this time, please don’t be discouraged!
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Incidents like this have happened with increasing regularity over the past couple of years, with many triggered by local misinformation about the arrival of non-white people at hotels But it has also happened elsewhere, including a church gathering in a park and a Scout trip to an activity centre
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I laughed out loud at this.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I think I noted during the recent Belfast riots that a certain kind of man is not really interested in protecting women & girls; he's interested in protecting the exclusive right of his kind of man to abuse and control women and girls.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
One reason England does so well is our second generation immigrants outperform their peers which is not true in most OECD countries. We are also very good at integration. And it's v sad that this is never acknowledge in debates on immigration.
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 08/09/2026
is this a serious question? i feel like i'm on drugs, nothing makes any damn sense
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Even leaving any politics at all aside: as general rule, no state can allow a group of masked men to be able to close down critical infrastructure. This is basic stuff.
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I find this kind of thing so deeply worrying.
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Robinson is far from alone. Had police on talking about the ‘peaceful protesters’ and, so far, Labour’s response to Dover and Portsmouth has been to talk about understanding the protesters These are literal street fascists!
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
2) and 3) are intimately linked, in that the BBC (the organisation that really matters in the modern environment) treats 'claims by rival parties' as the operating frame for how it covers everything. The failure from Labour and the Conservatives to say 'this stuff is bad' is really, really bad.
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I simply do not understand what's going on in Labour that renders its leaders incapable of finding a TV camera and speaking out against street violence. Even if you assume they agree about immigration, violence is wrong, unpopular AND against the interests of any even vaguely left wing govt.
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 03/09/2026
We are currently clean on OPSEC!
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Not the main point of the doc but the guy from JL Partners comes off TERRIBLY.
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James Butler @piercepenniless.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The decline of apex predator, the 'Fake Sheikh', has led to much laxer behaviour among its traditional prey.
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Usually undercover docs struggle to get a smoking gun but the Channel 4 Reform one they’re just like “hey, I’ve got some really good suggestions for how we could break the law together - we have a lot of experience of this because of all the other crimes we committed”
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Jay Zedbee @jayzedbee.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Channel 4 reporter: Hello. I am Mr. Alias and this is my extremely suspicious comically large donation that i can only make in the form of a bag of money with a dollar sign on it. every other reform guy: seems legit! let me tell you every single way in which i and my boss have broken the law
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 01/09/2026
A liberal is a conservative who just got mugged by the police
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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This whole piece is absolutely wild. Of course we know renters are treated appallingly at the bottom end of the scale, but look how even these people paying £4300 a month (!!) for a one-bed flat (!!!) can’t get their landlords to behave decently
Some buildings have loosened their rules in the wake of the Renters' Rights Act, such as no longer charging fees to have pets, said Karen Standing, who oversees the build-to-rent segment at estate agency Hamptons.
Shard Place does not allow pets, except for guide dogs. Under the Renters' Rights Act, the Labour government's flagship effort to help renters, landlords cannot have a blanket ban on pets.Instead, almost immediately, tenants encountered snags. Rubbish could only be placed in the building's chutes before 5pm, when tenants were often at work. The pool had to be booked and was often unavailable.
Food-delivery drivers were barred from entering the building or leaving items with the concierge. Guests had to be fetched from reception and were not permitted to use the pool.In another instance, a tenant wanted a key card so their partner could enter the flat without them. Knight Frank, one of the estate agents responsible for letting the building, suggested adding the person to the lease.
"But we had only been dating for four months, the tenant told the FT. "It would have been crazy ... We could break up tomorrow, and then what would I do if they had a right to reside here?"One issue that united residents earlier this year was internet access. After mistakenly charging some residents a lower fee, or in some cases nothing, the building told tenants in March it would charge £60 a month for internet use.
Residents balked at the short notice, the inability to choose their own internet provider and the price. Average entry-level broadband prices in the UK are about £25 a month, according to Enders Analysis.
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Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
It took me a fortnight but I made the Substack newsletter! PRESS ACCESS: tips and advice for journalists who want to break into the industry but don’t see people who look like them there. Subscribe for free: open.substack.com/pub/frances336
An illustration of me - a blonde,white wheelchair user - sitting at a desk. There are details dotted around the image, such as my books on the shelf behind me and a Guardian newspaper on the desk.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A very clear exanple of a national media outlet always looking for an UP/spike/high headline (with immigration down, asylum down, boats down, hotels down). Settlement at +5 years is up after 2021-24 migration peak www.thetimes.com/article/7f2a...
thetimes.com
Number of migrants applying to settle in UK at 16-year high
Reforms set to be introduced this autumn by Shabana Mahmood will double the time migrants must wait to obtain indefinite leave to remain
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Fun @funkelly.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
this is one of my favorite visual jokes of all time. i think about it several times a week.
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FT @fucktheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Wowee this bleak
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Jess McCabe @jessmccabe.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
This seeks to use social housing to create a hierarchy of types of British citizen. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
Reform says it would put foreign-born UK citizens lower on social housing list
UK-born married couples under 35 with children would get priority under proposals to be outlined by Farage’s party
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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Ahh, @samirashackle.bsky.social writing about my home county — and the care crisis and migration — could not be more relevant to my interests.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
This is a really inadequate Home Office statement in these circumstancds It empathises with this protest as expressing legitimate concerns, singles out violence against police, and simply fails to say "violence threatening asylum seekers, migrants & other minorities is shocking + wrong"
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The statement from the local MP expressing concern about minority ethnic people being misidentified as asylum seekers implies, perhaps inadvertently, that violence targeted at asylum seekers and their homes is legitimate.
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
The estimable @samirashackle.bsky.social is doing cracking work on two-tier citizenship. Listen to her here at @prospectmagazine.co.uk and #follow for her stuff.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Is it good when the secretary of defense is so fixated on making sure everyone is white and has tv ready abs that he forgets about munitions bsky.app/profile/carl...
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I know she's incapable of ever admitting she's wrong about anything, but even I'm surprised that Kemi Badenoch has chosen this particular hill to die on
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
This is what happens when anti-racism norms erode, and elites bear a lot of the responsibility for norm erosion, as they have disproportionate power to set and enforce norms
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