Melanie Richter-Montpetit
@mellimo.bsky.social
4.4K followers 330 following 93 posts
Assoc. Prof at Uni Sussex working on libidinal & political economies of (liberal) war and violence in the 'colonial present'; Feminist, queer & anticolonial thought & struggles. London | Aqueerius, middle-aged | she/her Personal account
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
oniblackstock.bsky.social
Act now and call on Israeli authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all other arbitrarily detained Palestinian health workers.
Release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya!
Act now to free Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya!
www.amnesty.org
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
ketanjoshi.co
This is a great, detailed piece of work. There is really no secret here: OpenAI fully intend to use fossil gas to power their data centres.

All the crap about fusion, dyson spheres etc is misdirection. This is what they're *actually* doing:

www.desmog.com/2025/10/13/o...
John McCarrick, the company’s new head of Global Energy Policy, was a senior energy policy advisor in the first Trump administration’s Bureau of Energy Resources in the Department of State while under former Secretaries of State Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo.
 
As deputy assistant secretary for Energy Transformation and the special envoy for International Energy Affairs, McCarrick promoted exports of American liquefied natural gas to Europe in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and advocated for Asian countries to invest in natural gas.

The choice to hire McCarrick matches the intentions of OpenAI’s Trump-donating CEO Sam Altman, who said in a U.S. Senate hearing in May that “in the short term, I think [the future of powering AI] probably looks like more natural gas.”
 
 It also aligns with the company’s early moves toward powering new data centers, huge warehouses full of linked-up computers that require enormous quantities of water and electricity, to run with gas. OpenAI’s U.S. Stargate Project site in Texas, which is slated to become one of the largest data center sites in the world, is already installing off-grid gas turbines to power its operations.

“Big Tech’s collusion with the Trump administration’s fossil fuel agenda for artificial intelligence is evident in their massive investment in methane gas power infrastructure — as well as pro-gas political operatives like McCarrick,” Tyson Slocum, director of consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said.
 
The “solution” of powering AI with gas is part of Trump’s AI energy policy platform.  In a July speech to announce a $96 billion AI and energy funding package, Trump lauded fossil fuel and coal-powered data center development while flanked by oil and gas executives.
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
ifex.org
IFEX @ifex.org · 13h
#Sudan 🇸🇩 In a powerful new report, @pressfreedom.bsky.social documents how journalists in El-Fasher face starvation, sexual violence, and relentless bombardment yet continue reporting, defying attempts to silence them under siege. buff.ly/u1JOVkL
Hunted, raped, starved: Sudan's journalists under siege in El-Fasher - IFEX
Journalists in North Darfur's capital face bombardment, starvation, and gendered attacks but keep reporting, defying attempts to silence their voices.
buff.ly
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
nkalamb.bsky.social
“I swear to God, they didn’t feed us. They beat us while we were naked day and night.

Until our last day, they cut us and hit us and abused us. We endured every kind of torture, emotional and physical.

We couldn’t even sleep. They told me they killed my children.”

- released Palestinian prisoner
Palestinian prisoner Shadi Abu Seed has given a harrowing account of life inside an Israeli prison after his release as part of the ceasefire deal.

“I went hungry for the past two years. I swear to God, they didn’t feed us. They kept us naked. They beat us while we were naked day and night. We were tortured,” Abu Seed said.

“Until our last day in Israeli prison, they cut us and hit us and abused us. We endured every kind of torture, emotional and physical.

“We couldn’t even sleep. They threatened us with our children. They told me they killed my children. They told us that Gaza was destroyed. I arrived here and found that everything was gone. It looked like the end of the world. Everything is different.”
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
nkalamb.bsky.social
Front page of Scottish newspaper The National today.
How Genocide Happened
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
yearly reminder to people insisting that we view Christopher Columbus as "a man of his time" that *the people responsible for the Spanish Inquisition* thought Columbus was out of pocket
tlecaque.bsky.social
Christopher Columbus was dragged back to Spain in chains by a crusading knight, convicted of tyranny and immeasurable cruelty, pardoned by Isabella but banned from returning to Hispaniola.

Fuck Columbus.
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
timnitgebru.bsky.social
Today is the 12th anniversary of 369 Eritrean refugees who drowned in Lampedusa (Italy) exactly 12 years ago. As @meron.bsky.social wrote, one of them was 22 years old and was giving birth as she was drowning. Her body was later found with an umbilical cord attached to her baby.
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
zarahsultana.bsky.social
People from all walks of life — including many British Jews — are protesting against your government’s complicity in genocide and standing in solidarity with Palestine.

Conflating Israel’s genocide in Gaza with British Jews is deeply inappropriate and dangerous. Shame on you.
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
philippedam.bsky.social
#Sudan: UN human rights experts send wake up call on severity of crimes committed by RSF & SAF.

@eudiplomacy.bsky.social: "There can be no justification for standing idle while atrocities continue"

Urgent steps needed to
⛑️Protect civilians
⚖️Press for accountability

www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
workingclasshistory.com
#OtD 4 Oct 1936 the Battle of Cable St took place when Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists tried to march through East London. They were met by over 100k local workers who fought the blackshirts and the police protecting them, stopping the march workingclasshistory.com/2020/02/17/e...
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
mellimo.bsky.social
Large protests and growing labour strikes across the globe in response to the illegal seizure of the Global Sumud Flotilla last night.

Protests tonight starting 5:30pm across London's major train stations.

Solidarity with the people of Gaza! Break the siege!
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
brianjulrich.bsky.social
"For the fourth consecutive night, young people protested Tuesday under the banner of the online collective 'GenZ 212', a loosely organised movement mobilising mainly through gaming platform Discord." #Morocco
Gen Z Morocco protests turn violent as gov’t pledges talks
The protests in Morocco are part of a global wave, stretching from Nepal to Madagascar, where Gen Z is protesting against corruption and social injustice.
www.newarab.com
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
madeinchinajournal.com
How should we understand Jin Xing, China’s most famous transgender celebrity? In this new essay, Yahia Ma unpacks her embrace of gender binarism not as a paradox, but as a strategy that secures mainstream visibility while opening space to imagine cultural and political otherness in China and beyond.
Only Two Genders? On Jin Xing’s Reaffirmation of Gender Binarism and Heteronormativity
Jin Xing 金星 (literally, ‘golden star’, or ‘Venus’ in English) is a household name in mainland China. Since undergoing gender-affirmation surgery in 1994, she has established herself as a dancer, telev...
madeinchinajournal.com
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
petersterne.com
Looks like the Mikeno (one of the ships in the Global Sumud Flotilla sailing to Gaza) might actually make it.

Roughly half the ships have been intercepted by the Israeli military, but the rest are continuing toward Gaza. globalsumudflotilla.org/tracker/
Screenshot of the Global Sumud Flotilla tracker, showing the Mikeno roughly 20 km away from the Gaza shore)
mellimo.bsky.social
Large protests and growing labour strikes across the globe in response to the illegal seizure of the Global Sumud Flotilla last night.

Protests tonight starting 5:30pm across London's major train stations.

Solidarity with the people of Gaza! Break the siege!
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
ayoub.bsky.social
No live coverage on The Guardian of the Global Sumud Flotilla.

They had no problem giving us a live coverage of the Kirk funeral.

They don't even need to spend resources to cover the GSF. They can just report what they see on the live feed.

They spent resources to go to Kirk's funeral.
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
ayoub.bsky.social
French MEP Rima Hassan on board one of the Global Sumud Flotilla boats: “you can see the Israeli boats intercepting”
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
ayoub.bsky.social
7 minutes ago: “As most of the boats on the Global Sumud Flotilla live stream have gone dark, One boat, Captain Nikos, sends hearts and peace signs as they get closer to the naval blockade.”
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
aljazeera.com
BREAKING: Israel has intercepted Global Sumud Flotilla vessels Alma and Sirius, according to activists onboard.

🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/356qba
Reposted by Melanie Richter-Montpetit
ayoub.bsky.social
Pls join us in following the Global Sumud Flotilla as it attempts to break Israel’s starvation siege of Gaza.

It will make more noise if more people are watching on YouTube.

So far over 60,000 people are following live.

www.youtube.com/live/uEN2bWF...