Dominic Sandbrook in the Times, in the wake of the shambolic martial law pronouncement by South Korea's president Yoon, looks at other coup failures – including the largely forgotten effort here planned by "the megalomaniac media chairman" Cecil Harmsworth King: Having endorsed Labour’s Harold Wilson in 1964, King was furious not to have been offered…

We're watching a massive, unevidenced medical experiment unfold in real time and it's shameful that lawsuits seem the only way to stop it. The cowardice of politicians and medics who let this happen, and the hubris of the idiots who cheered it on, must never be forgotten. — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 7, 2024 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Hard not to feel angry when you remember the way UK academia almost entirely rolled over for this blatantly evil malpractice. "Detransitioners are a myth", "it's a moral panic", "it's life-saving healthcare" and other obvious falsehoods, repeated ad infinitum. https://t.co/I0L5quYHTS — Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) December 6, 2024 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

We've come across both of the protagonists in this case before. The detransitioner, Clementine, talking to Billboard Chris, and the doctor, Johanna Olson-Kennedy, when she suppressed a report casting doubt on the use of puberty blockers for kids in case the findings were "weaponized"  by opponents of "gender affirming care". Now it's going to court:…

Growing up with the black and white photos and films of the attempted destruction of my people, I never imagined that one day I’d be seeing the same images in colour. pic.twitter.com/WkmzLJRJjR — Josh Howie (@joshxhowie) December 6, 2024 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js From the JC: Australian police are investigating after a Melbourne charedi synagogue was subjected to…

From the Times: Free speech on campus has decreased in the past decade, according to a survey of academics. The global poll of university staff found that 77 per cent agreed that free speech was more limited than ten years ago, with only 12 per cent disagreeing and 11 per cent unsure. Those working in…

Liel Leibovitz in Tablet on the case of novelist Boualem Sansal: Boualem Sansal, one of France’s most acclaimed authors, disappeared on Nov. 16. For more than a week, his whereabouts were unknown. Finally, and under mounting pressure, the Algerian government admitted that it had seized Sansal and was holding him on charges of “endangering the…

As @ShMMor wrote: “Hauling the Jews in to plead their case before a special tribunal and face the charge that they are the real Nazis has been the fantasy of every antisemite since the first gavel hit the sound block at Nuremberg.” @amnesty, go to hell. — Blake Flayton (@blakeflayton) December 5, 2024 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

From the Telegraph: LNER spent £58,000 repainting one of its trains with a rainbow-themed Pride livery, it has emerged. The cost of the Pride rebranding was revealed after a passenger sent a freedom of information (FoI) request asking the government-owned train company for more information about it. But instead of answering Carol Fossick’s other detailed…

Jack Delano, March 1943. "Santa Fe Railroad activities across New Mexico. Men coming out of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad shops in Albuquerque at the end of the day's shift." [Photo: Shorpy/Jack Delano for the Office of War Information]