A Times report – Royal Society of Literature chiefs quit as diversity drive implodes. Apart from efforts to make the society more inclusive, with predictable results… Prior to recent “inclusivity initiatives”, would-be fellows could be nominated only if they had published two works of “outstanding literary merit”. One prominent writer, Don Paterson, said however that…

I was hoping to leave the subject – so much heat, so little light – but this is such an excellent clear-headed analysis of the rape-gang culture and the Rotherham cover-up. Louise Perry in the Spectator: When I use the word ‘Rotherham’, I am talking about the rape and sexual torture of thousands of underage…

As I wrote yesterday, where's Christopher Hitchens when you need him…… Christopher Hitchens warned us… pic.twitter.com/iWUGEpveHs — John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) January 6, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Photographer Irina Wearing, celebrating the longhair culture of Latin American women: [Photographs © 2025 Irina Werning] From Colossal's favourites of 2024: For the last 17 years, Irina Werning has traveled throughout Latin America photographing women and girls for her ongoing series, Las Pelilargas, or The Longhairs. Shot in color and black and white, the portraits…

The Times this morning has the first of a three-part series by Anthony Loyd – Inside Sudan’s forgotten war: 150,000 dead, 11 million displaced: Torture and sickness are unremarkable ways to die in Sudan, where bullet and shellfire, enforced starvation, looting and rape are all part of the arsenal of war. Thousands of dead —…

Well, this is a huge surprise. From the Times: The two candidates vying to lead the Muslim Council for Britain have praised Iran and said mixed gender New Year celebrations were “un-Islamic”. Dr Muhammad Adrees and Dr Mohammed Wajid Akhter will face their first hustings ­on Tuesday in the race to become secretary-general of the…

This video reached 1 million views on Instagram, and I’m sharing it here because it provides an important history lesson about the Middle East conflict. The more we understand the past, the better we can shape the future. pic.twitter.com/pYOK0UOLHQ — Loay Alshareef لؤي الشريف (@lalshareef) January 5, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Oh yes. These hornbeams from yesterday at Queen's Wood. Too wet today.

David Patrikarakos at UnHerd – The West still doesn’t understand Iraq: Last year was, on balance, a miserable one for the world. And while only a fool attempts to predict the future in geopolitics, I am firm in the conviction that 2025 will be worse. If 2024 was depressing, it was also instructive, in the…

Of-course "UNRWA’s work is irreplaceable for Palestine refugees". Without UNRWA, none would be refugees. 95% of them are not refugees by any international standard already, and other 5% would have long ago been settled had they been treated according to international practice. https://t.co/ogmL0xJNx4 — Dr. Einat Wilf (@EinatWilf) January 4, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js