In the news

The actor Pamela Anderson, who has visited Assange at the embassy, has condemned the arrest.

Hmm not sure about that. I think if he’s on US soil he’s going to supermax.

I think the opposite is true, the Obama administration had a much more relaxed attitude to whistleblowers than the current administration. There are many influential people in the US who would love to see Assange put on trial for US military material WikiLeaks published. Trump has shown repeatedly that he is loyal to no one and would happily throw Assange under the bus.

I hope he gets extradited to Sweden first though, given the very serious nature of the crimes he’s been charged with there.

as others have said, that's not true

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/us/politics/trump-administration-assange-wikileaks.html

For sure I think some people are still after him but I still believe his chances of getting away with it are higher now than they were 7 years ago.

Pretty sure Trump has demonstrated over the course of the last couple of years that he has absolutely no loyalty to anyone or anything other than himself. The legal process is already underway in the US with a grand jury already taking testimony. Why would Trump stand in the way of that?

There's a chance that the testimony could be awkward if the names of Trump or those on his campaign start to crop up.

The meetings between the Trump campaign and Wikileaks have already been covered in the Mueller investigation. There's nothing there that isn't out already. And what's out there already really isn't that interesting.

There's nothing there that isn't out already

There's always something.

The BBC isn't perfect - personally I think it can have a slight government bias on some of the less critical programmes and the website - but that was also true under Labour, it's not just a Tory government thing. But fundamentally it's a trustworthy, unbiased news organisation that reports the facts and is a true institution.

They do some fantastic journalism. Personally I think some of their radio output is best - PM on Radio 4 is currently my go to for balanced news on Brexit and nobody could accuse it of being uncritical of the government. The World Service do some brilliant foreign reporting with real insight and colour. I could go on, there are plenty more examples.

I worked with a lot of BBC producers in my old job and for shows like PM they can almost be frustrating to work with because their standard for guests is so high - you'll often get spiked at the last minute because they've found someone who was closer to the action or is better placed to talk about something. They always want it straight from the horse's mouth, not from some rent-a-quote. But that's what makes it so good.

My friend who started off in BBC politics is now editing Today and I know how much shit he gets if a proposed piece could be seen as unbalanced - their standards are generally very high.

For all its shortcomings comparing the Beeb with RT is really chalk and cheese...

Oh and I don't work for them anymore but I still think if you want balanced, unbiased news you'll struggle to find better than Reuters ;)

Interesting to compare their Brexit headlines and leads at the moment, I would say the BBC's is noticeably more gentle on the Government!

Reuters - With Halloween the new Brexit deadline, MPs head off on holiday

BBC - Brexit: UK and EU agree delay to 31 October

On Trump there is an absolute boatload of stuff. But all this conspiracy bullshit isn't it. And it's a shame that the Democrats have invested so much political capital in going after him for the one thing that there's fuck all to nail him for. But then it's a shame the Democrats fucked up the election so catastrophically and lost to him in the first place.

I wonder if Assange will be compromised by Brexit? The UK is currently bound by various conventions and the ECoHR on extradition requests. I have a feeling that the EU may have been his biggest protector. Wouldn't be surprised if we see his legal team try to rush things through before Brexit day

Worth reminding people of the original allegations:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-sweden

Most likely he's a cunt. But the fact pattern isn't that clear cut. It's also probably a good insight into how many sexual assaults actually take place.

Anybody else finding it funny that he hid for 7 years to try to avoid a maximum 5 year sentence? Probably much closer to 2.5 years...

Lol, hadn't even considered that. It all looks a bit like a setup though: find some allegations to get him arrested so he can be detained in the process by USA. Allegations that can later be dropped but by which time he can be arrested for skipping bail/court, so it doesn't matter how long he hides for. As long as you know where he is, you can grab him when he comes out (or for whatever reason they were allowed in the embassy to get him).

Either way, next stop: USA!

1 Attachment

Pretty sure that's not what he was trying to avoid.

Why did they arrest Uncle Albert ?

Why did they arrest @jonny ?

I know. I think we are all a bit shocked.

😂

Any journalists on here attempted to crack hashed passwords to Pentagon networks recently?

oi!

heehee

Can Oliver translate?

The great clusterfuck of the tories.
Leaving the EU could have disastrous economical and social consequences for great Britain. Theresa May tries to...

If Europe's so great how come the Germans don't even have a word for clusterfuck?