“We have built the ultimate hacking machine. No system or computer is safe!”

Days Later: “It was hacked.”

Extremely normal and fine for a company to put this in a public statement

Eyal Weizman · All they will find is sand: Gaza’s Yellow Line Most of the Gaza Strip – cities, refugee camps, schools, universities, mosques, the health infrastructure, agriculture...

All they will find is sand

Eyal Weizman on the demolition of Gaza

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

How many more people are going to have to resign for Keir Starmer's decision to ignore the advice of every single person who told him not to appoint Peter Mandelson?

Once again: who could possibly have guessed Peter Mandelson's appointment might have backfired. Oh wait, loads of us.

Trojan Horse? Rupert Lowe’s Far-Right Restore Britain Is Standing 13 Candidates as ‘Independents’ in One Council Anti-racist campaigners accuse the ex-Reform MP of seeking to "disguise" the extreme views and affiliations of his candidates

Restore Britain, the far-right parliamentary party headed by ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe, is putting forward 13 activists as candidates in one area up for election this May. But all of them are being presented to voters as ‘independents’
bylinetimes.com/2026/04/17/t...

DIFFERENT PLAYERS, SAME GAME: WHAT LIBRARIES HAVE IN COMMON WITH GAMERS
The “Stop Destroying Videogames” European Citizens’ Initiative has its EP hearing today
Libraries face similar problems with #eBooks!
The #DigitalFairnessAct must protect them too
🔗 knowledgerights21.org/news-story/d...

**AFFORDABILITY CHEQUE** **Last August Reform UK's coffers were boosted by a generous £100,000 donation from the UK franchise of Sotheby's International Realty.** It isn't hard to see why the property agency, whose UK and Dubai franchises are owned by businessman George Azar, would be interested in supporting Reform. Not only is it the estate agent used by the party's treasurer, Nick Candy, but Reform is hoping its planned tax exemption for multimillionaires prompts wealthy people to relocate to the UK, which would boost the luxury property market Sotheby's deals in. Less clear, however, is how Sotheby's was able to afford its donation to Reform. Its accounts for 2023 show the company was heavily in debt, with net liabilities of more than £12.8m. The company's accounts for 2024, which might have shed some light on the matter, were due by 31 December 2025. But, more than three months on, they still haven't been filed, which is a criminal offence under the Companies Act. Alas, whether Sotheby's had made sufficient profit from its UK operations to fund its generous gift remains, for the time being, a mystery.

Pretty terrible that heavily-indebted Sotheby's has donated to Reform UK. Via Private Eye

Pete Hegseth quotes fake Pulp Fiction Bible verse during Pentagon sermon

Trump, Vance, Hegseth... These guys are all such fakers

"Donald Trump's Defence Secretary has adapted lines from Pulp Fiction falsely attributed to the Bible, while giving a sermon at the Pentagon."

www.9news.com.au/world/pete-h...

We just read Child's Play by William Trevor in our Shared Reading group in the library. A great choice of story. Brings up lots of feelings about childhood, divorce and home.

[The News Agents] Everything Trump doesn't understand about Iran
podcastaddict.com/the-news-age... via @PodcastAddict

What is @Keir_Starmer and @UKLabour saying about the sheer terrorist carnage being inflicted on Lebanon by Israel right now. Do they expect votes for their party while they allow for these disgraceful grave crimes against humanity to continue unabated?

My guess is that this is the short / medium term solution. European and other countries ‘go get the oil’ by negotiating agreements with Iran. If so, very curious to see what HMG does.

Middle East war live: French-owned container ship exits Strait of Hormuz Donald Trump renews threat to attack Iranian infrastructure

A significant breakthrough in Hormuz? Or a one-off? A French-owned, Maltese-flagged container ship passed safely through the Straits of Hormuz last night – the first European vessel to do so since Gulf War 3 began. 1/

www.ft.com/content/c860...

Might have to do a daily reminder that UK inflation went up to 27% after an oil-price crisis in the more self-reliant 1970s.

Far too many folk wanting to use every opportunity to talk up the opportunity to smash the global economy through weaponisation and self-sufficiency.

UK looks to relax planning rules for factory farms after industry lobbying Exclusive: documents chronicle years-long campaign to make it easier to build intensive livestock units

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The future environment generally - *our* future environment - is up for destruction in return for a few quid today.

Ed Miliband to give green light to first major North Sea gasfield project in decade | LBC The energy secretary is expected to approve Jackdaw drilling as the Iran war puts pressure on the government over energy security fears

A huge betrayal.

Won't lower bills. Won't give us more energy security. Won't insulate from price shocks.

And sends a clear message to the world that we are backing new oil and gas drilling.

www.lbc.co.uk/article/ed-m...

Guys, is it good when you fire the head of the army in the middle of a war ahead of a possible controversial ground invasion? It's a thing you do if you're winning, right?

thehill.com Pope Leo: God ‘does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war’

Pope Leo: God 'does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war' #TheHill

"A grave precedent."

Israeli police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, as well as a priest from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, from entering the holy site to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass—"for the first time in centuries."

Invading a country basically for laughs is bad, but weirdly not uncommon. Doing so with such incompetence that you alter the global balance of power against yourself is a new category of ridiculous.

Screenshot of a tweet saying: * WTF: Lincolnshire Church of England primary school allegedly forced 7-year-old children (none Muslim) to perform full Islamic prayers to Allah in RE lesson. "We did prayers to Allah yesterday," one girl told her father. Pupils were shown a demonstration video then told to kneel, bow heads & copy the movements themselves. Angry parents reported it to Lincolnshire Police. School unnamed amid backlash fears. Disgraceful. There is a Picture of children in school uniforms kneeling on the floor, heads down, in a classroom setting

I have deleted my original debunk of this story as it appears it is actually an amalgamation of 2 stories...

(Don't let anyone tell you I'm not prepared to be corrected!!)

So let's look at them individually:

We'll start with the photo...

So what's going on?

🧵1/12

Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, last week called for the death of the European Union and the return of a “Christian” Europe.

In 2020, Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son called for "the death of the European Union" (2020).

compossible.blog/2025/03/22/a...

How can this go on for another 3 years?

Hatzola ambulances set alight in Golders Green arson attack CCTV footage circulating on social media shows three men approaching the vehicles and then fleeing the scene as flames appear

I grew up in this community and I have a few thoughts I want to share.

A short thread.

www.jewishnews.co.uk/breaking-hat...

The mess the Middle East is now in can be largely traced to one factor: Donald Trump's belief a) that international political negotiations are like New York real estate negotiations (they're not) and b) that he is a supremely skilled negotiator (he's not). 1/n

HAARETZ:

“IDF strikes on over 100 medical facilities in Lebanon kill 40 medical workers” www.haaretz.com/middle-east-...

“Israeli settlers prepare for
Large scale West Bank rampage as Palestinians report attacks and arson” www.haaretz.com/west-bank/20...

Lisbon’s COVID-19 Dolphin Resurgence is Coming to an End - bioGraphic In Portugal, as around the world, the benefits of lockdown to wildlife have proved fleeting.

Lisbon’s COVID-19 Dolphin Resurgence is Coming to an End

In Portugal, as around the world, the benefits of lockdown to wildlife have proved fleeting.

by @leahbortskuperman.bsky.social

www.biographic.com/lisbons-covi...