Finners

“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”

[James Li @5149jamesli]

Wrong Jeremy.

Captain of the U.S.S. Liberty, in a speech given at Arlington National Cemetery: “I do not believe it was a case of mistaken identity.”

[Sarah Ludford 🇬🇧 🇮🇪🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @SarahLudford]

“The students who attended also confirmed that, although they had made complaints to the proctors about the disruptive and intimidating nature of the demonstration at @michaelpforan’s first talk, the officials allowed the activists to protest at a second lecture.”

😳😩🙄

[Alfie | HITC Sevens @HITCSevens]

When the U.K. Foreign Office considered denying North Koreans visas to play at the 1966 World Cup, FIFA told the FA that they would immediately relocate the tournament.

That was when FIFA still had something remotely resembling a spine.

[Dennis Noel Kavanagh @Jebadoo2]

1/ When trans activists aren't harassing lesbians, one of their preferred tactics is to silence gay men

One such gay man, Associate Professor Dr. Foran of Keble College, Oxford has just had to cancel a lecture series because some people go to university to shout and not to learn

[TerfyMcTerfyFace 🦖 @TerfyMcTerfy]

@RichardDawkins @runthinkwrite I’d also argue that they have no right to take up a place at one of the most prestigious universities in the world if they are incapable of debating and don’t believe in free speech.

[Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins]

This unqualified bore says his secondhand opinions are “not up for debate.” Yes they are. At a university all opinions are up for debate. If you cannot defend your opinions rationally, either they are indefensible or you are too stupid to defend them. In either case you have no right to force them on students who have expressed their wish to attend a lecture by doing so.
https://t.co/2HqOx6x2TP

[Hussain Shiyam 🇵🇸❓🎈 @ShiyamHussain]

This is utter bullshit. When Indonesia refused to grant the Israeli under 17 team visa’s for the 2023 U-20 World Cup, FIFA stripped Indonesia’s hosting rights and moved it to Argentina. So @FIFAcom can stop with the lies.

[Paulina Guzik @Guzik_Paulina]

In what will certainly become one of the most fundamental speeches of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV told the Spanish Parliament, before receiving a 7-minute standing ovation: "The defense of human life is neither a partisan issue nor a confessional interest: it is a goal of civilization."

"If life ceases to be recognized as a fundamental value, what future can our societies have?" he said, speaking to a gathering of politicians, many supporting abortion and euthanasia.

"Can a community that casts into the shadows the unborn child, the elderly, the sick, those who suffer in silence, or those who depend entirely on the care of others be called fully just?"

"Every human life must be recognized and safeguarded from conception to its natural end, in every circumstance of its existence. When this certainty is obscured, the most vulnerable are the first victims, and the law loses its deepest meaning: to serve and protect every person."

"For this reason, the moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect and love those lives that are most fragile," he said, repeating what John Paul II emphasized decades ago.

Starting his speech he commented that Church's is the "message offered in the spirit of service to the human person."

"When the Church addresses anything concerning public life, she does so while respecting the proper mission of institutions and the legitimate responsibility of those who have received the mandate to legislate," Pope Leo said, emphasizing "the Church offers a reflection born of the desire to serve the common good."

He hailed Spain as country that "has known how to view the human being as more than just a cog in the social, economic or political order. It has recognized the human being as a creature open to truth, endowed with freedom, and driven by a thirst for eternity that no temporal reality can quench -- in a word, as someone whose dignity takes precedence over all utility and to whose service legislative action is subject."

He said it was Catholic orders that "helped to shape a legal and moral consciousness capable of remembering that authority always entails responsibility and that every human being must be recognized as a subject of rights and duties."

"That aspiration continues to resonate today: that dignity, justice and the common good should be the measure of social relations, both at the national and international levels."

Referring multiple times to his "Magnifica Humanitas" encyclical, he said: "When the common good ceases to be a shared horizon, public action runs the risk of fragmenting into partial interests, incapable of safeguarding what belongs to all."

"In this context, the family — the primary human reality and the natural foundation of the community — takes on particular importance," Pope Leo said.

"The family will always be the first school of humanity, where one learns, before anywhere else, the basic grammar of living together: welcoming life, caring for others, forgiving, serving and belonging."

"Human life can never be treated as a commodity," the pope said.

"A law does not attain its true greatness merely by having been formally enacted; it attains it when, in addition to being valid in form, it can stand before the dignity of the person and pass that test without shame."

"I invite you, then, to lift your gaze to the world around you, not to turn away from reality, but to remember that every decision by public authorities affects real people, especially those who have less power to make their voices heard."

"The expanse of one’s vision consists precisely in looking more deeply at what is at stake in every public decision. This is why, alongside technical solutions and legal reforms, a moral renewal is also needed."

Video: Vatican Media
(fragment of speech follows)

[Wally Rashid @wallyrashid]

In 1987 a library in Wisconsin was named the USS Liberty Memorial Library.

It enraged the ADL and the Milwaukee Jewish Council, calling the naming antisemitic.

They pressured to have the name changed, but their efforts failed.

[Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 @MichaelRosenYes]

@leftworks1 @0Calamity @joshxhowie @per_incuriam2 It’s good. By drawing attention to this yet again, the good Josh has given me an excuse to share my blog about how ‘Bear Hunt’ came about. It’s had 20k views now. And I’ve updated it to include him.

[Rafael Domingo Osle @RafaelDomingoO1]

Como jurista, me quedo con una frase del discurso del @Pontifex_es en el @Congreso_Es que debería enmarcarse en cada parlamento: "Una ley no alcanza su verdadera grandeza por el mero hecho de haber sido formalmente aprobada; la alcanza cuando puede comparecer ante la dignidad de la persona y salir de ese examen sin avergonzarse".

[teresa smith @treesey]

Listen to how @michaelpforan *encourages* students with dissenting views to stay, listen and challenge him.

Isn’t this a model of what the academic & student relationship should be?

[Michael Foran @michaelpforan]

This is the second lecture in the series I had planned discussing the themes of my new book, Sex, Gender Identity and the Law (CUP 2026).

https://t.co/WFF9zozZQ2

[John @john_notabot]

You are unable to drink outside where Douglas lives in the USA

[Jon Pike @runthinkwrite]

This is a matter for the Vice chancellor of @UniofOxford Prof Irene Tracey, but also for the Chancellor @WilliamJHague. You were elected on an academic freedom platform: let's see some action, Lord Hague.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

It’s important to distinguish clearly between a kirpan and the knife used in the Henry Nowak murder case, because they are not the same thing legally or practically. A kirpan is a small ceremonial dagger carried by initiated Sikhs as a religious article. Where it is permitted in the UK, it is typically limited in size, symbolic in nature, and worn as part of faith practice rather than carried as a functional weapon

By contrast, the weapon used in the attack was a much larger 21cm knife, which falls squarely under ordinary offensive weapon laws and is not covered by any religious exemption. It was treated by the court as a serious stabbing weapon used in a violent assault, not as a ceremonial item

Conflating the two creates a misleading impression, because UK law does not allow people to carry large knives in public under religious protection, and it certainly does not permit the use of any such weapon in an attack

[Javier Sánchez @javisanchezglez]

7/ Y entonces llega el mejor eslogan del discurso.
"Sed humanos."
Dos palabras. Imperativo. Universal. Irrefutable.
Pocos políticos han logrado una llamada a la acción tan simple y tan potente en los últimos años.
Mientras la política grita, el Papa susurra. Y se le escucha más.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

SKYNEWS: You sent Putin a letter asking to meet, quite a cheeky letter. Putin described it as rude. You referenced his age and years in power.

ZELENSKYY: You didn't read first version.

SKYNEWS: First version ruder? (Both laugh) You want to share it with us?

ZELENSKYY: No, no.

[Joe Guinan @joecguinan]

Thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers were tried after World War II not on the basis of “a list of Germans” but rather a list of war criminals, mass murderers, and genocidaires, who were pursued in Allied courts and in formerly occupied countries. Thats what’s needed with the IDF.

[Andy Burnham @AndyBurnhamGM]

@Gracie_Blue89 @Andy35892175 Just to keep it factual. It wasn’t a “Makerfield resident”. It was a Restore supporter from Sheffield.