Mick Hartley

Astonishing. From the Telegraph.

A Jewish protester was arrested by the Metropolitan Police after he briefly held a placard satirising a Hezbollah terrorist leader, The Telegraph can reveal.

The British man, who has asked to remain anonymous for his safety, was detained and charged last September over a cartoon that showed Hassan Nasrallah, the Lebanese terror chief, with a pager and the words “beep, beep, beep”.

The placard satirised a targeted Israeli attack, dubbed Operation Grim Beeper, in which explosives in pagers and walkie-talkies killed 42 people, mostly Hezbollah terrorists. Nasrallah survived, but was killed in an air strike a week later.

During questioning, police repeatedly asked the man – who was part of a counter-demonstration against a pro-Palestinian march – if he believed the image would offend “clearly pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel” activists.

Hezbollah is a terror group, which is proscribed in the UK.

Yes, we know that. The police don't seem to though.

The latest case prompted condemnation from senior MPs and peers on both sides of the House.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said it was an example of “two-tier policing in action”.

He told The Telegraph: “In recent times, the police have failed to act when confronted with protesters calling for jihad and intifada in London. Yet this man was apparently arrested because he might have offended supporters of a banned terrorist organisation.

“This is two-tier policing in action. The law is rightly clear that supporting banned terrorist groups, inciting violence, inciting racial hatred or harassing people is illegal. Beyond that, free speech applies to everyone…."

Before detaining him overnight at Islington police station, officers searched his home in a failed attempt to find the placard, which the man had already explained was not his.

“Two police vans and six officers turned up at our house to search for ‘offensive material’, which was quite invasive. It was a horrible experience,” he said.

“They put me in the lounge and asked my partner to go with them around the house. They weren’t very pleasant to her and even went through her knicker drawer. It was totally ridiculous.”

Following his arrest, in police interview footage obtained by The Telegraph, an officer can be seen repeatedly asking the counter-protester: “Do you think that showing this image to persons protesting who are clearly pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel that by doing so would stir up racial hatred further than it is already?”

Allowing marches calling for the elimination of Israel might possibly be seen as stirring up racial hatred – but of course racial hatred against Jews doesn't count.

He was released at 6.30am and later charged under the Public Order Act for causing racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress by words or writing.

On May 10 – eight months after his ordeal began – the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case, saying there was insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction….

Lord Austin, a non-affiliated peer who was investigated by police for calling Hamas “Islamists” on social media, told The Telegraph: “It beggars belief that someone would be arrested, put in the cells and then charged for holding this sign because it might upset supporters of Islamist terrorists and a proscribed organisation, rather than take action against the terror supporters.

“There is clearly a systemic problem when it comes to dealing with the hate marches and, instead of telling us they disagree with individual decisions, ministers need to get a grip and sort it out.”

Alex Chinneck's bendy building sculpture in Charterhouse Square – part of Clerkenwell Design Week:

 

This is interesting. Parts of North Korea are being swamped with a barrage of Chinese media, according to the Daily NK:

China’s cultural development and cooperation program with North Korea across the three northeastern provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang goes far beyond simply sharing cultural content. Instead, it represents part of a sophisticated overseas cultural campaign tailored to current North Korean attitudes.

“China recognizes that North Koreans feel less threatened by Chinese media than by content from South Korea or the U.S. The fact that North Koreans are more receptive to Chinese media was a major factor behind this program,” a source in China told Daily NK recently.

By "North Koreans" here, what the source in China means is the North Korean regime. Actual North Koreans would doubtless much prefer South Korean media, but are forbidden from watching on pain of serious repercussions, up to and including execution. Pyongyang, it seems, is less concerned about Chinese influence.

According to the source, North Korea’s tendency to view Chinese cultural content as relatively safe presents an opportunity that China is seizing. This has led Chinese producers to focus on programs that North Koreans consider “less dangerous foreign information,” such as dramas, documentaries and lifestyle content.

Specifically, China’s strategy involves making cultural inroads into North Korea by providing useful, apolitical content such as Chinese language educational videos and informational programs about daily life in China…

The goal isn’t just for North Koreans to consume Chinese content, but to become familiar with Chinese culture and view it as part of their daily lives….

“While North Koreans will continue seeking South Korean media, China believes that over time, Chinese media will begin feeling more familiar and comfortable to them. China’s long-term plan is to cultivate a shared cultural identity between the two countries,” the source explained.

This is at a time when North Korea is closely allying itself with Russia, notably in the sending of troops to Ukraine in return for unspecified military hardware. Relations with China, meanwhile, are reported to have cooled. This is surely a blip though. China is overwhelmingly of greater significance to North Korea in the longer term – as China clearly knows.

Another factor is South Korea's heavy reliance on US support. If the Trump administration is lecturing Europe on its need to look after its own defence instead of relying on American power, that surely applies with even greater force to Seoul. Trump doesn't do policy based on principle, like defending democracy. South Korea, fortunately, is a rich country, and could perhaps tempt Trump with a juicy deal or two, but still, it's all looking a little worrying for a small country with an insanely belligerent other half now arming up, and supported by both China and Russia.

As China implements this overseas cultural strategy, it’s closely watching the possibility of the U.S. scaling back efforts to influence North Korea.

“China is pleased by signs that the U.S. is voluntarily abandoning its democracy promotion campaign. If U.S.-backed content dissemination efforts lose momentum, China will become the only significant content provider. It sees this as an ideal opportunity to spread its own culture,” the source said.

“China is also preparing to use this program as a diplomatic tool. If North Korean officials and young people develop positive attitudes toward China, that could strengthen pro-China policies,” the source added.

Korean reunification is looking deader by the week. 

TRA ideology is clear: it calls on women to deny their own existence as a sex. It maintains that the effort to abolish women as a sex class is the "civil rights movement of our time." This is madness. And it is profoundly immoral.

— Prof. Gary Francione (@garylfrancione) May 22, 2025

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Below is a list of all 13 MPs who disgraced Parliament this week by repeating the “14,000 babies will die within 48 hours” lie in the House of Commons, which has incited great hatred of Israel and Jews and caused community tension.
They should have known better. It was obviously…

— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) May 23, 2025

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Here we go again:

A British band with an Israeli singer have accused a live venue of discrimination for cancelling a gig at short notice.

Management at Strange Brew in Bristol contacted Oi Va Voi, who have been playing klezmer music for 25 years, less than 48 hours before their gig on Wednesday night to say that they were no longer welcome.

The reason given was an album cover from Zohara, who was born in Tel Aviv and sings with the band. It depicts her nude and tending a field of watermelons, which are a symbol of Palestinian resistance.

The performance was set to be the band’s first date on a UK tour after a series of performances in Europe. It comes two weeks after two UK concerts featuring Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and the Israeli musician Dudu Tassa were cancelled.

[Also in Bristol.]

Breslaw said that he contacted the venue three weeks ago after seeing it voice support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Breslaw said that the group was not political, the music was “Jewish in its DNA” and that the band performs in Israel, including with Arab musicians.

“I wanted to make sure we weren’t coming to a hostile environment,” he said, adding that management assured him there would be no issue. In an email to Breslaw, the venue stressed that it “stands vehemently against antisemitism and is a safe environment for the band”.

But they were lying. Also, cowards.

Strange Brew said it had planned to host the show until Monday, when “campaign groups and members of the public” requested its cancellation. It said of the album cover: “Regardless of the intended meaning, the use of politically loaded symbolism in this way — by anyone of any background — is ambiguous and could therefore come across as politically insensitive and/or offensive to the people of Palestine and by our audiences. For this reason we could not be confident that platforming the artist at our venue was consistent with our ethical values.”

The venue added: “We have never and would never exclude anyone — artists or customers — on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or nationality.”

Until now. 

From one of the original Tavistock whistle-blowers, on the news that cross-sex hormones for under-18s could be restricted or banned.

Denying biological reality is like King Canute commanding back the tide.
It doesn’t matter how fervently you believe in a self-constructed worldview—reality has a way of reasserting itself.

The government has now been pushed—by the courts—into properly reviewing the Cass Report… https://t.co/Oubz0LQT00

— marcus evans (@marcuse99903226) May 22, 2025

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Full text:

The government has now been pushed—by the courts—into properly reviewing the Cass Report @Hilary_Cass , with all its clinical and policy implications. Why it has taken so long to follow basic clinical logic remains a mystery.

The politicisation of this clinical issue—where ideology was privileged over evidence—continues to cause iatrogenic harm. Institutions that should have been guided by reflective inquiry instead became agents of affirmation, sidelining clinical caution in favour of ideological certainty.

And now, after years of distortion, the @BBC finally reports on the court cases that have forced the government to restore common sense. But for years, it amplified claims that lacked any evidential basis. There was never solid scientific support for the routine medicalisation of gender-distressed children.

Some of us——like @sueevansprotect— have been saying this for years. We were ignored, sidelined, and sometimes vilified. Meanwhile, irreversible harm was done to vulnerable young people. The whistleblowers were right—but it’s the patients who pay the price.

Now @wesstreeting must ensure this issue is not kicked into the long grass. The time for clarity, accountability, and evidence-based care is long overdue.

Stephen Daisley in the Spectator:

Globalise the intifada,’ they chanted. This is what that looks like. Two Israeli embassy staffers gunned down as they left the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgram had been attending an event for young Jews working in foreign policy organised by the American Jewish Committee. One of the focuses of the evening was finding a way to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in Gaza….

The suspect, now in custody, is said to have chanted ‘free, free Palestine’ as he was apprehended. We don’t know as yet his broader worldview or how it led him to conclude that killing Jews was the answer. Killing Jews is the answer for so many worldviews.

We do know that Yaron and Sarah were murdered in a climate of lies and vilification and hatred. A roiling frenzy in which anti-Semitic incidents in the United States have increased by 893 per cent over the past decade, in which the socially conscious tear down posters of kidnapped children, in which students are harassed by organised and well-funded intimidation campaigns on US college campuses.

A demonic chaos in which the United Nations falsely claims that Israeli actions are on the brink of killing 14,000 Palestinian babies in 48 hours – a claim it eventually retracts, but not before the incendiary allegation is laundered through major news organisations, social media, and the British parliament. An orgy of Jew-hatred in which the anti-colonial left and nationalist right thrash wildly alongside Muslim supremacists and atheistic anarchists. Across the civilised, enlightened West, everywhere you turn they’re turning on the Jews.

The more institutions participate in this collective madness, the more madness there will be. The more elected officials and NGOs misrepresent the predictable consequences of asymmetric warfare in densely populated territories, where much of the infrastructure of everyday life has a dual civilian/terrorist purpose, the more the citizenries of North America and Europe will come to regard Israelis and Jews as a people who lust unquenchably after blood.

The more journalists obsessively pump newspapers, TV bulletins and social media feeds with accounts of one conflict, and one conflict alone, and profoundly dishonest and distorted accounts at that, the more readers and viewers will carry the impression that the heartbreaking suffering in Gaza is unique or even uncommon in contemporary conflict….

For years now, and especially after the October 7 massacre, the call has gone up from the pro-Palestinian movement to put Palestine at the heart of western politics. To pursue the struggle against Zionism in every country, on every platform and in every setting. To wage worldwide resistance to Israel, not only in Wadi al-Far’a but in Washington DC. ‘Globalise the intifada,’ they chanted. This is what it looks like.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota:

An inmate at Minnesota’s Shakopee women’s prison says she’s been traumatized by the state’s policy allowing transgender-identifying males to be housed alongside female prisoners—calling her experience “the worst time I’ve ever had to live through.”

Jamie Ali, who is currently incarcerated at the Minnesota Correctional Facility–Shakopee, spoke to Alpha News by phone and shared concerns about her mental health, physical safety, and what she calls repeated failures by the Department of Corrections (DOC) to protect vulnerable women.

“I am a survivor of sexual assault. I’ve been raped three times,” Ali said. “I also experienced domestic violence growing up and in my previous relationships so the whole thing being here with these men has been a nightmare.”

Ali said the state’s 2023 transgender policy has caused lasting psychological harm in the form of panic attacks, and the presence of biologically male inmates has forced her to isolate—even from beneficial rehabilitation programs.

“I withdrew from every single one of my classes because there are transgenders in them and it’s very traumatic,” she said. “I’ve been having panic attacks since I’ve got here.”

Ali made a disturbing claim about one inmate, Sean Windingland, who she said was previously housed in Shakopee and later transferred back to a men’s prison.

“Upon them searching his room they found bottles filled with semen,” Ali alleged. “He was storing it to, I guess, get IPs (Imprisoned Persons) pregnant … or to give to them so they could then therefore try to impregnate their self.”

Windingland, Ali explained, had been “charged with molesting his six-year-old twin daughters.” She questioned how he was ever approved for transfer. “How in the hell would that have been appropriate to put him in all woman’s prison? I mean somebody make it make sense.”

She should ask Minnesota governor Tim Walz, the Dem nominee for vice-president under Kamala Harris. He's a big trans advocate. Maybe he can make it make sense.

Earlier this month, multiple sources confirmed to Alpha News that Stillwater prisoner Marco Hanlon, who identifies as a “transgender woman,” has received breast implants. Hanlon was charged with criminal sexual conduct for molesting his five-year-old cousin.

According to court documents, Hanlon has received hormone therapy for years. Alpha News asked the DOC for comment and if taxpayers are footing the bill. The DOC responded by saying, “We are unable to confirm any of the information that you seek.”