From this Guardian article: Both men envisaged being “martyred”, but neither reckoned with the prospect that a man they believed to be a crucial player in their plot could be a counter-terrorism undercover operative (UCO). Because of the courage of the UCO, known as “Farouk”, Saadaoui was captured in the final stages of preparation in…

From the Times this morning: A group of peers have urged Wes Streeting to halt an NHS-backed puberty blocker trial, saying that it will put children on a pathway of “lifelong medical support”…. They said: “Most children with concerns about gender grow out of it. But once placed on puberty blockers, the majority proceed to…

To get in the festive mood. From the series by Petr Válek on Facebook:

More on the puberty blocker trail, from the Mail: Children who sign up to the controversial puberty blockers trial will be told to consider freezing their eggs or sperm because of the risk posed to their fertility. Young people experiencing ‘gender incongruence’ who take part in the NHS-backed study will be offered expert advice on preserving their ability…

Worth a read – Nick Wallis on the persecution of Cheshire councillor Mandy Clare after she complained about inappropriate sexualised displays at Winsford Pride, a supposedly family-friendly council-funded free day out… “… The police arrived, and the security guard who had Mandy’s right arm alleged she assaulted him.”

From Anna Slatz at Reduxx: A father who murdered his two young children has been transferred to a women’s prison after beginning to identify as transgender. Paulus Said Foukaih Abdelshahed, an Egyptian national who had been living in Sweden for almost two decades, is serving a life sentence for the killings. After psychiatric examination it…

Meanwhile, in Southwark: It was as Miranda Newsom entered the female changing room of her local council-run leisure centre in Southwark, south London, that she first noticed someone who was clearly a biological man washing his hands at the sink. Newsom, a 60-year-old marketing executive, had been a member of the gym for over two…

“”For Stock and Power are correct about this much: psychoanalysis does not presume that we in general know our own minds.” There’s more to Srinivasan’s LRB article than her patronising dismissal of Nina Power and Kathleen Stock. Here’s how it starts: The unconscious​ is back. Why now? Certainly it ruptured into consciousness in the days and…

Julie Burchill, in the Spectator – It’s hard to take the Palestine Action hunger strikers seriously: For connoisseurs of silliness, the group’s website provides a smorgasbord of the stuff. Even overlooking their demands to be released on immediate bail, shut down a defence firm with links to Israel, achieve an end to the ban on Palestine…