Mick Hartley

At Spiked, Kelsey Zorzi, director of advocacy for global religious freedom at ADF International – Islamists are massacring Syria’s Christians:

On Sunday, a suicide bomber entered the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus, opened fire, and proceeded to detonate an explosive vest. He killed at least 25 worshippers, including children. Over 60 others were severely injured. It was the deadliest attack on Syria’s Christian minority in years, and a devastating reminder for all of Syria’s religious minorities that the fall of the brutal Assad regime hasn’t ended their nightmare.

Syrian officials have blamed Islamic State (ISIS), which – though officially defeated – remains alive through sleeper cells. ISIS has not claimed responsibility, leading to questions whether it was truly behind the bombing. But regardless of the perpetrator, the method and target align with a long, documented pattern of jihadist violence against religious minorities in Syria. In addition to the church bombing, planned attacks on Shiite shrines and public spaces were reportedly thwarted.

The bombing stirred memories of ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliphate, which from 2014 to 2019 imposed an explicitly genocidal regime across parts of Syria and Iraq. Then, Christians were given ultimatums: convert to Islam, pay a punitive tax known as a jizya, flee or be executed. Crosses were torn down, churches destroyed and clergy murdered. In cities like Raqqa, many Christians who didn’t escape were either forced to convert or were tortured, kidnapped or killed.

Christians were not ISIS’s only targets. Yazidis were systematically murdered and enslaved. Yazidi women were raped en masse. Shiite Muslims, Druze and Ismailis were branded heretics and hunted. ISIS fighters recorded their massacres and turned their genocide into monstrous propaganda. Now, five years after the fall of ISIS, its ideology is creeping back into Syria.

Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December, the United Nations and mainstream media outlets have referred to the attacks on Christians and other religious minorities in Syria as ‘sectarian violence’. But this term misleads the public and obscures what is actually happening…..

To be clear, what we are witnessing is the systematic targeting of nearly all religious minorities in Syria – Christians, Druze, Ismailis, Yazidis, Alawites and Shiites – by violent Islamist factions. To call it ‘sectarian violence’ is to imply mutuality where there is none. Minority victims are not aggressors. They are certainly not the ones who need to show ‘restraint’…..

The erasure of Syria’s Christian presence would not only be a humanitarian tragedy, it would also mark the loss of one of the most ancient expressions of the faith. Christianity has existed in Syria since the first century AD. The Apostle Paul’s conversion took place on the road to Damascus. The followers of Jesus were first called ‘Christians’ in nearby Antioch. Cities like Aleppo, Homs and Maaloula were home to thriving Christian communities long before most of Europe was evangelised.

Facing ongoing threats, persecution and economic collapse, thousands of Syrian Christians are desperate to flee – not from lack of love for the country, but out of sheer necessity. Without immediate protections, Christianity in Syria risks becoming a memory, its ancient churches left as hollow monuments in a country that once helped carry the faith to the world.

Not featuring in a demonstration near you any time soon. No one cares. Israel's not involved.

Scotland leads the way once again:

New Police Scotland guidelines which allow transgender suspects to request officers of different sexes to frisk various parts of their body have been described as a “botched compromise”.

The advice — designed to accommodate people who have not completed a full surgical transition — would mean detainees could ask for a woman to search their top half and a man to search below the waist.

Brilliant.

The swimming ladies are fighting back on Hampstead Heath. There's a men's pond, a mixed pond, and a ladies' pond – which allows men in if they're wearing a wig and claim to be women. But times are changing, at last.

Swimmers at the Hampstead ladies’ pond have accused transgender women of spying on them naked.

Women have complained of voyeuristic behaviour from some trans women, who were born male, using the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond, which they say has made left them feeling “violated”.

"Who were born male". And still are male, ffs. Always and forever.

One said she had been stared at in the shower, while another saw a biological man taking photographs of other bathers.

Now a women’s rights group has threatened the City of London Corporation, which owns the outdoor pond, with legal action unless it stops biological men from using it.

The pond opened in 1925 and is the sole women-only freshwater swimming amenity in the country. Since 2019 it has been open to trans women.

The Corporation has not changed its policy since the Supreme Court ruled in April that, under the Equality Act, sex means biological sex.

This judgment means toilets and changing rooms should be segregated by biological sex and not self-identified gender.

Women’s rights campaign group Sex Matters has threatened to take the Corporation to court unless it changes its regulations to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.

The group said it has examples of women who have felt uncomfortable using the ponds since trans women were allowed in.

They have “been subjected to trans-identifying men being naked in the changing area and showers” and experienced “trans-identifying men taking photographs of women and girls and trans-identifying men topless in the meadow, both of which are not permitted”.

Other women have complained about “trans-identifying men staring at women and girls in the showers and changing facilities”; and “felt violated in what they considered was a women-only safe space”.

The fact that there's a mixed bathing pond puts the lie to any excuse about these men going where they feel comfortable. They're going there to make the women feel uncomfortable. And for a bit of ogling. All you need is a wig, as the Beatles didn't quite say.

One pond user, who wishes to remain anonymous, complained: “I was showering outside after my swim, when a big man with a long wig and a long coat came walking down the path to the pond area.

“This man came and lingered in the restricted area between the outdoor showers and the fence, where my towel was draped. He stood there turned at an angle, looking at me and evidently wanting me to know that he was looking at me.

“I was trapped, because I was naked, and my towel was on the fence behind him.”

In 2019, the pond changed its rules to allow trans women – that is biological men – to use the facilities, claiming it was required under the Equality Act.

When the change was being discussed, Charles Lord, from the City of London Corporation, said: “It shouldn’t be controversial. It shouldn’t be a debate. Trans women are women, trans men are men.”

Idiot.

Even after the Supreme Court judgment, the Corporation put out a statement indicating it would not change its policy, saying: “Any unlawful discrimination will not be tolerated. Our gender identity policy is designed to ensure our services are welcoming to everyone, including all who use the bathing ponds.”

Trans women have been allowed to use the pond since the judgment, even though the signs say “women only” and “no men beyond this point”.

The changing hut at the ladies’ pond contains open communal showers and an open changing area.

Last year the UN failed to renew the contract of its Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu-Nderitu. This was, almost certainly, because she refused to use the term to describe Gaza. Daniel Sugarman interviews her at Jewish News:

On 15 October 2023, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the United Nations’ Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, published a statement on the 7 October attacks the previous week, and what had happened since.

The statement was trenchant in its criticism of “multiple and coordinated attacks” from terrorist organisations within the Gaza Strip, calling them “unacceptable” and “inexcusable”, but also cited “the loss of civilian lives resulting from Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip”, calling “for all possible measures to protect those who are most vulnerable”. It mentioned the “unacceptable withholding of Israeli hostages by Hamas in the area” and called for their unconditional release, but it also highlighted, “the vulnerability of Palestinian and other civilians remaining in or fleeing their homes in light of ongoing and escalating risks of violence irreversibly affecting them.”

Not good enough. She didn't say "genocide".

On 9 December 2023, Nderitu hosted an event she had been organising for a year, to mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the UN Genocide Convention. It honoured Raphael Lemkin, the Jewish lawyer who had coined the term “genocide” to describe the actions of the Nazis. That same day, a public petition was launched, falsely claiming that Nderitu’s original statement had “failed to acknowledge Israel’s overwhelming violence against Palestinian civilians”. It condemned Nderitu for what it described as a “failure to fulfil her mandate”, demanded that the UN investigate her conduct and called for her immediate resignation.

Shortly after that, the death threats started.

The UN's response? She should say "genocide" anyway. C'mon, what's the big deal?

She described how within the UN she was then being told that perhaps she should issue a statement on genocide in Gaza – not because she believed it, but just to prevent further attacks on her.

“The daily press briefings, all these messages…colleagues were telling me, ‘what will it cost you just to put up a statement and say that you see clear risks of Israel perpetrating genocide?’ And I kept telling them, no, no, no.”

It is clear, talking to Nderitu, that she was deeply troubled, not by the focus on Gaza as much as the corresponding total lack of focus on any other terrible world crisis.

“This had not happened for any other conflict”, she said, referring to the protests against her based on her original statement. “Ukraine, the Congo, Sudan, Myanmar – I mean nothing, nothing like that whatsoever.”

In particular, the situation in Sudan troubled her.

“I went to Chad [the neighbouring country] and I had interviews with people from Darfur. I briefed the Security Council, and I was so clear, I told the Security Council, ‘My role is to identify risk factors for genocide and I’m here telling you that every single risk factor for genocide exists in Sudan’. I gave them very granular details of who was killing who in Sudan. And I told them, ‘Security Council, you have to act, because one day you’ll be held accountable for not acting on Sudan’. I then went to Geneva, and I briefed the Human Rights Council in great detail.”

I asked her whether there was any action. “Nobody, nobody”….

It became clear that there was what she described as “media prioritisation”.

“They would ask about Gaza every day, and I would say ‘ok, people are dying in other places too…I was issuing statements about Myanmar, South Sudan, the Sahel, the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo], places where risk factors for genocide clearly existed, people dying in different parts of the world. And really, I didn’t get a single journalist in the daily press briefing saying she’s been speaking, you know, about South Sudan, or about DRC. It was, ‘why will she not say that there is a genocide in Gaza?’”

Wairimu-Nderitu looks at me.

“You know, South Sudan is actually on the verge of a genocide right now? In terms of Sudan, it is already being perpetrated, in South Sudan they are very close.”

But no one cares unless Israel's involved.

Alice Nderitu previously – I was hounded out.

“I was hounded, day in, day out. Bullied, hounded, with protection from nobody.”

These are the words of Alice Nderitu, the UN’s former Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. In a shocking article, she details the appalling treatment she endured at the hands of the United Nations—months of relentless pressure to label Israel’s actions against Hamas as “genocide.”

She even received death threats for refusing to comply: “They started sending me threats on my phone. And then they even started threatening me on the U.N. e-mail.”

One such e-mail read: “Filthy Zionist rat, you will burn in hell forever for supporting the rape and torture and murder of little kids by your bestial masters.”

Nderitu exposes the UN’s blatant bias against Israel: “It’s instructive that this never happened for any other war. Not for Ukraine, not for Sudan, not for D.R.C., not for Myanmar. The focus was always Israel.”

Exciting updates on Glastonbury:

Glastonbury bosses have declared Kneecap is “welcome” at the festival despite calls for the Irish republican rap group to be banned.

Emily Eavis, the festival’s organiser, said: “Everyone is welcome here,” in response to Sir Keir Starmer calling for the trio to be deplatformed.

Liam O’Hanna, one of the three Kneecap members, appeared in court this month accused of displaying a flag in support of proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah at a gig in November last year.

He also allegedly shouted: “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah,”…

Also:

A Palestine Action activist is set to appear as a speaker at Glastonbury Festival.

Francesca Nadin, who described herself as a former “political prisoner” and contributes to the Revolutionary Communist Party website, is listed as a speaker at the festival.

Is there a chance that there'll be mass chants?…"Free Palestine"; "From the river to the sea"; "Globalise the intifada"; "Zios not welcome here". I believe there is.

Remember the Nova festival? Israel, October 2023? Brutality on an almost unimaginable scale…slaughter, rape, abduction. And here we are, at another music festival, celebrating the perpetrators…

Alex Massie in the Times, on the political paralysis in Scotland, and a bloated civil service:

You might think it obvious that when the Supreme Court clarifies what the law is and, indeed, what it has always been that the government and its myriad public agencies would pay some attention to this and promptly reconsider, and in fact rewrite, the unlawful policies and guidance it has mistakenly insisted upon for years.

You might think that obvious but you are not, of course, a government minister or senior civil servant. Yet here we are: nearly three months on from the verdict in For Women Scotland vs Scottish ministers and the government continues to delay, prevaricate, and obfuscate the urgent need to get its own house in order. The fierce necessity, that is, of obeying the law.

The Supreme Court’s verdict was really quite clear. Where single sex spaces are permissible or necessary they must be precisely that: single sex. For sex, in terms of the Equality Act, is to be understood as biological sex, not whatever or however a person may choose to identify themselves as. This is not complicated.

Yet the government continues to do very little. Ostensibly, this is because in common with other administrations in these islands, it awaits guidance from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission even though, importantly, the EHRC says there is no need for this delay. Because, again, the law is now straightforward.

Hark however, at how Joe Griffin, newly appointed permanent secretary to the Scottish government, explained the situation at a Holyrood committee hearing this week. He was quizzed by Michelle Thomson, the SNP MSP for Falkirk East who put the matter plainly: “I’m flabbergasted why ten weeks after the Supreme Court judgment you’re not implementing the law. Why is that?”

I apologise to readers for quoting the permanent secretary’s response at length but it is useful, I believe, to let Scotland’s most senior servant speak for himself. Here is what he said: “So first of all, the government’s really clear: we accept the ruling and will take the action necessary to implement that.

“There’s a range of action that we have been taking already and in request from the cabinet secretary for social justice I’ve convened a short-life working group for all areas to be represented to take stock of the actions we need to take to ensure there’s a common understanding of where we are and to share any insight we may be gleaning from other approaches, for example the UK government or the Welsh government and these are the actions that we are taking while we wait for the end of the EHRC process to review their statutory guidance. That consultation ends next Monday, they’ll move to finalise that and once that’s finalised we’ll be able to take a further series of actions.”

Undaunted by this flannel, Thomson pressed on. “What actions,” she asked, “have you taken beyond talking about taking action?”

To which, and again I am afraid I am compelled to quote at length, Griffin replied: “Well, so I think, so specific actions I can’t give you that right now but the work that’s involved in the group and the work that the teams that are represented on the group is to prepare the ground so that when we have an understanding of what the consultation results will be by way of the new guidance we are ready.”

It is, after all, very important not to act too hastily when there is instead the opportunity to talk about talks about taking action. In the fullness of time, of course.

At this point everyone quietly agreed it was time to give up. The point of Yes, Minister is that it is a satire, not a manual….

The Scottish civil service has expanded by 70% since 2013, while the police and fire service workforces are being reduced.

We heard about Munroe Bergdorf yesterday:

Helen Joyce received a £20,000 advance for her book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, which went on to sell over 23,000 physical copies in the UK and over 100,000 internationally. Munroe Bergdorf, by contrast, received a six-figure sum for Transitional, which sold fewer than 3,000 copies in the UK.

Despite a conspicuous lack of interest from the general public, he continues to be acclaimed – not least by the BBC:

The BBC has given Munroe Bergdorf a 40 minute platform to explain why he is in a 'lesbian' relationship with another man. This is part of a new series on what love is, in which every guest so far is an LGBT activist (Stephen Fry, Self Esteem, Richard Coles and Philippa Perry) pic.twitter.com/li99Fr2aUw

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) June 25, 2025

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"Erasing women and women-specific language and needs based on their sex is not only wrong, but also demeaning, regressive and constitutes one of the worst forms of violence that women and girls can experience," @UNSRVAW Reem Alsalem told the @UN Human Rights Council.#HRC59 pic.twitter.com/4Am8JiTG0O

— UN Human Rights Council (@UN_HRC) June 25, 2025

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As well as the BMA's obsession with Gaza, there's its obsession with gender. Yes, the two do seem to go together. From the Times:

The British Medical Association has failed to produce a promised “critique” of the Cass Review, amid a bitter internal row over its “abysmal” handling of gender policy.

The doctors’ union prompted anger by announcing last year that it would lobby against Baroness Cass’s report into gender services for children without consulting its members.

The British Medical Association (BMA) then set up its own “task and finish group” to evaluate the methodology used by Cass, a paediatrician, and write a critique which they said would be completed by January.

But, oh dear, it's still not appeared.

More than 1,000 BMA members have signed a letter demanding that it “abandons this pointless exercise”.

Senior doctors have warned that the BMA, which represents about 190,000 doctors, is “no longer a democratic organisation” and has made itself “irrelevant”.

They noted that the BMA leadership had consistently failed to select motions relating to the Cass Review at annual conferences, including this week in Liverpool, meaning gender-critical members were silenced. Other topics, such as the Israel-Gaza conflict, were prioritised for debate.

Clearly a much more important topic for a UK doctor's union.

Dr Louise Irvine, a GP and member of the BMA, said it was absurd that the union felt it had the relevant expertise to critique the Cass Review — which took four years and reviewed data from 113,000 children.

She said: “The idea that the BMA — which is not set up to do these kind of reviews — could do this by Christmas was always a joke. Then it was going to be the new year, then spring, then summer, then it was going to be before the [annual meeting], now it’s not. It’s a terrible waste of BMA members’ money.”…

In July last year, the BMA announced it would lobby against the implementation of Cass’s report after a secretive vote at a meeting of its UK council. Irvine said: “There has been terrible secrecy all the way along. It reflects a deeper malaise within the BMA. It is no longer a democratic organisation. It is too easily taken over by ideologues and interest groups."

Two works by Emily Allchurch caught my eye at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: The Six Seasons – (Winter) after Breughel, and The Six Seasons – (Late Summer) after Breughel. I found the full series on her website:

Allchurch’s new collection of work, ‘The Six Seasons’  re-imagines Bruegel’s paintings, using assemblages of thousands of contemporary photographs taken in the English landscape. By recreating Bruegel’s paintings with images from today, Emily looks at the central theme of the ‘Seasons’ – man’s relationship to nature and the land – and asks what has changed in the intervening centuries, and what has stayed them same.

Five of Allchurch’s images are based on the surviving paintings that are now distributed across three countries and two continents: The Hunters in the Snow, The Gloomy Day, and The Return of the Herd at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; The Harvest at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and The Haymaking at Lobkowicz Palace, Prague Castle. The sixth painting, however, has long been lost.

In ‘The Six Seasons’, Allchurch re-imagines the missing painting as ‘The Six Seasons – Late Spring (after Bruegel), “reuniting” it with its companion pieces.

[Images © Emily Allchurch]

Click to enlarge.