Blog

mzR7l5k1OW”>pic.twitter.com/mzR7l5k1OW

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 6, 2025

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Yet despite repeated military failures, and the increasing distance between the first-world powerhouse that the Israelis built and their increasingly war-torn, third-world neighborhood, the global conscience was always predisposed to rebuilding what the Palestinians destroyed. Accordingly, the Palestinian Arabs became a tribe of feral children whose identity was carved out of the relentless vow to eliminate Israel and slaughter the Jews en masse—despite repeated failures, each one more crushing than the last.

Trump said, enough, we’re not rebuilding Gaza. Time for a new idea—the Gazans have to to go, they can try to start again somewhere else, in a land where every building still standing isn’t already wired to explode. […]

Here is the stark reality: Gazans, not just the enlisted members of the Hamas brigades, waged an exterminationist campaign against Israel, and they lost. At virtually any other time in history, save the last 75 years, they would be lucky to lose only territory and not have their legend and language permanently deleted from the book of the living.

Trump’s generous offer to the Gazans therefore signals a return to history, but with a twist. Trump has not only spared them, but vowed to provide them with new lives, better lives, work, new homes, a chance to raise their families in peace, an existence not premised on total and permanent war with a more powerful adversary destined to rout them entirely, and would have already done so if not for the objections of other powerful global players.

Interesting times. This is a paradigm shift in thinking about Israel and Gaza – and only the US could make this suggestion. The old pre-Obama US, that is. Could it really happen? Could they make it work? I honestly don't think so, but….we'll see. It certainly has – as Trump loves to do – shaken things up.

Back up to Hampstead this morning:

comments became clear issued a statement dissociating himself from the wannabee Trump, had merely demurred that a better description might be "not typical"). None of this should really be a shock given Galloway's record and politics. But he has clearly sniffed which way the wind is blowing, i.e to the populist, misogynistic and pseudo-religious far right, and like RFK Jnr he wants a slice of the action."

aled that her older child is transgender." That should be: "In June 2018, Nixon decided that her older child is transgender."

[She also – what a surprise – "supports South Africa's genocide case against Israel. She contributed to a video series, published by the Palestine Festival of Literature, in support of South Africa's motion, accusing Israel of genocide against civilians in Gaza."]

Added:

To @AOC , @IlhanMN, and other feminist politicians in the U.S.—imagine if Israel had jailed this woman for singing, showing her hair and dancing. You would launch global campaigns to condemn it. But here’s the bad news for you: this isn’t Israel. This is the Islamic Republic of… pic.twitter.com/KKZ2iA1Xk6

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 4, 2025

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

"This is the Islamic Republic of Iran, where women are imprisoned, beaten, and even killed simply for wanting a normal life."

Here we go. ‘It Shouldn’t Be Happening Here’ Parents of trans children in NYC are outraged as hospitals quietly shift their approach to gender-affirming care. 

That stress has affected one mother in the Bronx whose son transitioned at the age of 3. He just turned 12, and his doctor at NYU Langone informed her that he will not be able to get a puberty-blocker device implanted in his arm this spring as planned. She was told the hospital is interpreting the order’s ban on “surgery” to include this quick outpatient procedure. While the medication-delivery device lasts a year, the alternative is quarterly injections, which would mean a two-hour commute by train every three months. Plus, her son is afraid of needles. “I haven’t even told him yet because things feel so in flux, and we’re hoping they can be ashamed or shocked or forced by law into giving the care they need to give,” she says. “This is a civil rights issue.”

Transitioned at the age of 3.

J.D., who is the trans dad of a 15-year-old trans daughter, tells me he stockpiled a year’s worth of meds for her after the election and has shared information with other families on how to do the same. “It’s a life-and-death issue,” he says. “There’s nothing more important in her life than having this care. We’ve known she was trans since she was 2 and a half.” The mood in their home has been brutal since the election. “We are an all-queer family. I’m a trans person myself,” he adds. “I’m very angry and I have a lot of despair.”

Trans since the age of 2 and a half.

These people are in the grip of a cult. It's like waiting for the aliens to arrive. It's Jonestown on the Hudson.

A new peer-reviewed article examining the criticisms of the Cass Review, just published. The authors found that the primary source of the criticism, a non-peer-reviewed paper published on the Yale Law School website, contains numerous inaccurate and misleading claims.
Link👇/1 pic.twitter.com/rRU3ZfQiIu

— SEGM (@segm_ebm) February 4, 2025

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The paper is here. The abstract:

The Cass Review’s final report, published in April 2024, made recommendations to the UK’s National Health Service regarding structuring of services for minors with gender-related distress. It recommended cautious use of hormonal interventions in this population and use of research protocols. Some clinician-researchers disagree with the Cass Review’s recommendations and have written critiques. A critique of the Cass Review posted on Yale Law School’s website in July 2024 has received extensive media coverage. Its references identified three other critiques. In these papers, there were multiple claims that were incorrect or that lacked essential clarification/contextualization. These claims involved (1) the Cass Review’s contents and processes; (2) the pediatric transgender healthcare evidence base; (3) existing clinical practice guidelines, including claims that there is international medical consensus; (4) evidence-based medical practice and guideline development; and (5) conclusions regarding the validity of the Cass Review’s findings. The Cass Review’s careful, balanced investigations and judgments were a comprehensive, evidence-based response to the controversies in this pediatric clinical arena. Recently-published critiques of the Review have contained incorrect or inadequately contextualized claims. Because accurate information about medical interventions is essential to informed consent, it is important to correct errors in potentially influential publications.

imported_image_1758238754.jpg” style=”width: 550px” title=”IMG_2013-1536×1229″ />
Acorn Weevil. Photo (c) Matthew Thomas

Smiling Damselfly. Photo (c) Benjamin Salb

Jagged Ambush Bug. Photo (c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, age 17

abor. Those sent to the construction sites typically end up digging holes or sorting rocks.

These roundups appear linked to Kim Jong Un’s recently announced plan for extensive greenhouse construction. The initiative was originally presented as a way to improve living conditions in flood-damaged areas, but has now become a pretext for forced labor.

It's the old story of grand projects being promised from on high, followed by the realisation that there are no means of delivering said projects. So…forced labour. Drag people off the streets and into chain gangs.

The sweeps are affecting people across different areas and social groups. “A moonshine trafficker in Kaechon was detained by Unified Command 82 on Jan. 15 and forced to clear ground at a construction site for three days. Housewives are also frequently being conscripted,” the source added.

Sinuiju residents have grown increasingly resentful of the large-scale construction project. “People here don’t want these greenhouses or other facilities. They’re worried about being drafted for state construction projects nationwide and being forced to pay for building materials again this year,” the source said.

In a few years time, if this follows the usual trajectory, it will turn out that this large-scale construction project, like all the other large-scale construction projects, was shoddily built, using cheap defective material, and is now falling apart.