The red-green alliance in comical action, as Christopher Helali, International Secretary of the American Communist Party (ACP), speaks with Russia Today TV live from Isfahan, Iran. He’s very excited by the determination of the Iranians to keep fighting. “Let’s finish the job once and for all”. What a communist leader is doing cheering on a…

Jonny Ball at UnHerd on Morgan McSweeney’s behind-the-scenes management of Starmer’s Labour Party: In Starmer’s image, a new Parliamentary Labour Party has been created. Out of the 403, not a single one of them represents a plausible alternative Prime Minister. This is the only thing that keeps Starmer in place, in spite of his unprecedented…

More on that SJA Columnist of the Year story:

From the Times: Róisín Murphy has warned against “confused young people” making themselves “social media enforcers” as she spoke for the first time about being “cancelled” for her views on puberty blockers. The Irish singer, 52, faced a public backlash when in August 2023 she criticised the prescription of puberty blockers to children who expressed confusion…

At the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition 2026 at Somerset House. Colour Divides by Robby Ogilvie. Interesting to know where the shot was taken, but really – “reflecting how colour and space shape urban identity”. Do they have to come up with this style of constipated intellectualism to justify the image? It’s just a great…

More worrying signs of ideological nonconformity amongst North Korean youth. Time to polish up the old favourites. From the Daily NK: North Korean authorities are significantly expanding anti-American ideological education targeting middle and high school students, ordering the content to be woven into virtually every school subject. The move points to deepening official anxiety about ideological drift among the…

Meanwhile, in the world of sport: Liew wrote that the presence of a Gail’s bakery in Archway, near a Palestinian-run café, was “an act of heavy-handed high-street aggression”. So the vandalism was quite understandable. He also supports “trans inclusion” – ie men – in women’s sport.

Rosie Kay in the JC – How antisemitism, fear and intolerance grip Britain’s art world. A new report from the organisation she co-founded, Freedom in the Arts, shows the depth of the problem. One of the report’s most serious findings is that antisemitism is not incidental to this new climate. It is one of its…

On the requirement for Israel to be destroyed so that the Hidden Imam can appear. Yes, it really is a thing. Not much room for negotiation here.