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uirements without making any further remarks.

“The primary goal is to understand how families feel about their sons being sent to the battlefield,” the source continued. “The police explained that the party needs citizens to express their candid feedback (about the Ukraine war) to provide foundational data for shaping future ideological policies for provincial residents.”

Hmm. You'd have to be exceptionally foolhardy, or naive – or stupid – to express anything but the highest praise for our brave boys fighting for the glory of the motherland and its heroic leader Kim Jong-un. Good way of weeding out the troublemakers, though.

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The blood libel is a medieval conspiracy the Jews killed gentile children. Just like this modern iteration, it originated in Britain. It resulted in the murder of Jews and their eventual expulsion from England.

(As an addendum I would add I am against the siege and welcome the fact that aid trucks are going back in even though they are feeding the Hamas machine.) 4/4

Added, from the JC:

A widely reported claim that 14,000 babies in Gaza could die within 48 hours has been corrected by the UN, which says the figure refers to potential deaths over the next year.

The statement, aired on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and repeated across national media and in Parliament, was later clarified by the BBC as a misrepresentation of a humanitarian report projecting malnutrition cases in children aged six month to five years over a 12-month period.

The UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher claimed on Monday morning that thousands of babies could die in Gaza in the subsequent two days if Israel did not immediately let aid in, apparently based on a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Partnership.

Speaking to Today, Fletcher said: "There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them."

He said there were "strong teams on the ground" operating in medical centres and schools – but did not provide further details.

Five trucks entered the strip on Monday, which Fletcher described as "a drop in the ocean." He said the aid had yet to reach civilians.

However, a look at the IPC report reveals that the figure refers to the number of children at risk of “severe malnutrition” by March next year, rather than by the end of the week. The number is a projection and would not take into account any increase in the supply of aid between now and then.

Later the same day, buried in a story about how aid in Gaza has yet to reach the population, BBC News issued a correction to Fletcher’s claim. A separate UN official also declined to repeat the claim and made the correction in a press briefing….

On Tuesday, around 93 trucks carrying aid, including flour, baby food, medical equipment and pharmaceutical drugs, were allowed to enter the Strip.

The Netanyahu government had said its blockade was aimed at preventing Hamas terrorists from seizing and reselling aid. It has denied claims that there is a shortage of food in Gaza and insisted that instances of starvation are caused by Hamas withholding supplies from the civilian population.

Lesson one: don't trust the UN, especially on Israel.

Lesson two: any lie which paints Israel in as bad a light as possible will be seized on and amplified across the media. Any later corrections will be muttered quietly and discreetly.

after all, passed by a Labour government.

Ah yes. Leadership. From Starmer. Hmm. We shall see.

ool teacher in Uiju was fired for failing to implement these orders, demonstrating the regime’s zero-tolerance approach to ideological compliance. Even songs like “Reunification, May You Come Soon” are now forbidden in classrooms….

Seoul must recognize these changes as part of a broader, deliberate strategy by Pyongyang to permanently redefine the Korean peninsula as two hostile states rather than one temporarily divided nation. The simultaneous alteration of physical spaces and educational content demonstrates the comprehensive nature of this policy shift. This transformation demands a clear-eyed reassessment of South Korea’s unification policies and security posture, acknowledging that the path to peaceful reconciliation has grown significantly more challenging as North Korea systematically dismantles both physical connections and linguistic references to a shared Korean future.

I've documented this before. Here, for instance, on the occasion of the demolition of North Korea's Arch of Reunification in Pyongyang last April:

For Great Leader Kim Il Sung reunification would have involved the triumphant North, a beacon of socialist success, taking in the hopelessly corrupt and decadent South. As it's turned out the South's been resurgent, an economic and cultural powerhouse, while the North's turned into a starvation-ridden dystopian basket case. The only conceivable reunification now would follow the collapse of the Kim dynasty, with the South trying to pick up the pieces – at huge cost.

From North Korea's official point of view, then, reunification has now to be truly dead and buried.

We've seen East and West Germany reunite; we've seen North and South Vietnam reunite. This, though, may well be a step too far. Reunification is officially dead in North Korea, and though the Daily NK commentary assumes that the South must still be striving for one unified country, my feeling is that for the majority of South Koreans this is no longer the case. They have their own problems, and really, after over 75 years, seem to have little enthusiasm for rescuing their fellow Koreans, at enormous expense, from the hell they've built for themselves.

Local hospitals in North Korea have no drugs beyond herbal medicines, and people only go there to get medical certificates to avoid work. “There are no naive people here who go to hospitals expecting treatment". So Pyongyang is promoting a "self-reliance" approach to medical care: hospitals have to produce their own medicines, and the people have to cure themselves. 

Local hospitals across North Korea are actively manufacturing their own medicines following the regime’s “self-reliance” directive.

According to a Daily NK source in North Pyongan province recently, county hospitals in areas including Yomju and Taechon have begun prescribing self-produced traditional medicines to patients this year. These include “Youngsinhwan” made from wild ginseng, “Danggangssughwan,” remedies for arthritis made from aralia root, and antibiotics derived from honeysuckle.

These measures aim to provide at least some medication to patients amid shortages of essential drugs like antibiotics and painkillers….

“There are no naive people here who go to hospitals expecting treatment,” the source said. “Many visit hospitals to get medical certificates to avoid work. Even those who are genuinely sick have come to accept receiving only prescriptions without actual medicine.”

Traditional medicines may vary though:

County hospitals throughout the province are engaging in self-reliance through the production of Korean traditional medicines, with Youngsinhwan being the most commonly manufactured.

“Youngsinhwan is everywhere these days, but each hospital adds different ingredients in different amounts, so the taste and hardness vary,” the source explained. “Since the effectiveness hasn’t been verified, people don’t make judgements about whether it works but rather comment on which hospital’s version tastes sweeter or which one is just bitter.”

Never mind the effectiveness, check out the taste.

me as before – men winning in women's sport, kids getting "gender-affirmative" care, the whole deal. Because, as I say, Trump and co. don't really care. It was useful for getting into power…but not any more.

essing and disruptive for Sisters Salon attendees, the children using our creche, library staff and the hundreds of library users who were evacuated, including many young people studying for upcoming GCSEs and A Levels.

In an instagram video, Savage falsely claims that Sisters Salon is a ‘notorious hate group’. This is untrue, upsetting and libellous and only serves to cause unhelpful division within the local community. You can read our mythbusters here….

We believe protests about women holding single-sex events are rooted in misogyny and have no place in our diverse city. The single-sex nature of our meetings is legitimate and in line with equality law. At a meeting on women’s health, a single sex space is especially important as it empowers women to speak freely about our own health issues and focus specifically on our own needs. 

Maliciously setting off a fire alarm goes beyond a simple protest – it is unduly provocative, stops women from exercising their Article Eleven right to freedom of assembly. This, together with subsequent inflammatory statements on social media, and misogynistic slurs, has whipped up hostility and misplaced fear about our group. It has resulted in graphic and violent threats towards us.

The gross smug entitlement and misogyny of that preening idiot's ridiculous justification for his fire alarm prank really sums up the trans movement. It should get as much publicity as possible – and then compared to this eminently sane and reasonable response. We see what's going on here.

ur response⬇️to a plan which we understand @UKLabour NEC will consider on Tues

The plan accepts the need to comply with the Equality Act, but proposes cancelling Women's Conference to avoid threats from those objecting to it being for women only..https://t.co/gKL1gPqCrt

— LabourWomen’sDeclaration 🦖 (@LabWomenDec) May 19, 2025

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From Labour List:

Labour is set to indefinitely postpone its national women’s conference and limit women’s officer roles and all-women shortlists to biological women while it reviews its policies in the wake of the Supreme Court judgement, sparking attacks from trans and gender-critical activists alike.

LabourList has seen a paper circulated to members of the party’s national executive committee, which warns of a “significant risk of a legal challenge” – as well as “protests, direct action and heightened security risks” if the women’s conference goes ahead as initially planned in Liverpool this September on the basis of attendee self-identification.

The gender-critical campaign group Labour Women’s Declaration, which welcomed the Supreme Court ruling, said shelving the conference would be “wrongheaded”, shortsighted”, “exceptionally disappointing” and a “knee-jerk reaction”.

Meanwhile LGBT+ Labour’s trans officer Georgia Meadows and two Labour trans rights campaign groups said they “unreservedly condemn” the wider party changes, warning limiting trans people’s participation will exacerbate trans people’s under-representation in politics more widely.

Brilliant. Pleasing no one, while showing themselves up as cowards.

A Labour Women’s Declaration spokesperson said: “We are of course pleased that the party is finally aware that it must comply with the Equality Act. However, cancelling our conference for fear of protests against a women’s event, is not the answer.”

“We feel it would be a knee jerk reaction to cancel.  We call on the NEC to consider very carefully such an incendiary action as cancelling the single major policy-making conference of the party which focuses on issues affecting women.

“We are shocked that hundreds of women in the Labour Party might be prevented from meeting at conference because the NEC would prefer to disadvantage all women rather than to exclude the very small number of trans-identified men who may wish to attend the women’s conference.

I did wonder about this. Rather than tell entitled men to eff off, and actually defend women's interests, orgs may just decide to scrap women's things entirely.

Which, if you STILL can't work out what is going on here, is patriarchal bullshit on steroids. https://t.co/osNBzJItZB

— Jenny Lindsay (@msjlindsay) May 19, 2025

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implications of this war exceed the boundaries of space and time.

"Who could have imagined that students in America – at universities from which the politicians graduate – would protest against their leaders and against the Zionist occupation, and sat that Palestine must be liberated "from the river to the sea" – not just the 1967 borders like most of our Arab leaders say?

"Today the number of Muslims is multiplying because of what is happening in Gaza. Today Gaza is giving a new interpretation to the holy Quran."

When you are happy that you have cancelled the incredible Sir @SalmanRushdie from giving a talk at your college, you really have lost the plot. https://t.co/MBqFpcPVjH

— Nicholas A. Christakis (@NAChristakis) May 17, 2025

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Details here.

The cancellation came as student and local Muslim advocacy groups called the author’s presence “disrespectful” after he said pro-Palestinian protests across college campuses were akin to supporting “a fascist terrorist group,” The Guardian reported last year.

“I’m surprised, relieved and happy,” Claremont Colleges Muslim Students Association president Kumail Afshar said about Rushdie’s decision.