Nick

Trying to remain relevant as I enter my golden years. Still keen on summer camp fires and bringing the sunny tastes of the Levant to cloudy Britain.

[Sameh Ahmed 𓂆 🇵🇸 @PalPress24]

I can't get this scene out of my mind.

Some may see nothing more than kitchenware, but to the family who lived in this home, these were pieces of a lifetime—cups they shared, plates that gathered loved ones around the table, and everyday objects filled with memories.

When a soldier smashes the kitchen utensils inside a home in Gaza, it is not just dishes being broken. It is an assault on the simplest moments of ordinary life and on the memories that made that place a home.

In Gaza, even the smallest things that carry the meaning of life have not been spared.

[Sarah Wilkinson @swilkinsonbc]

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, who’s son serves in the israeli army, is trying to block the Church of England’s report on the genocide in Gaza https://t.co/MHq83QXres

[courtneybonneauimages @cbonneauimages]

My out of office message:

The past two years have been marked by an accumulation of losses. Loved ones. Colleagues. Friends. People deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli army. I learned that grief does not arrive as a sequence of discrete events; it accrues. It settles into my body until I start to wonder not only what has been lost, but what remains.

There are moments when I suspect I have lost some part of my own humanity simply by witnessing so much death. I have watched people die in front of me in ways that resist description. I have lived inside a genocide as it unfolded, and I have watched another continue in Gaza, mediated through the relentless images on a tiny screen in my pocket that refuses to yield. The 24 hour image has dissolved the boundary between proximity and spectatorship. We can leave the scene, but the scene does not leave us.

Some images insist on permanence. On more than one occasion, I have watched paramedics carry bags containing the dismembered remains of children. There are sights that do not become memories because they never cease to be present. They have reorganized my inner life.

How much grief can a human being contain before it alters the architecture of the self?

I have been chased by a Merkava tank. A grenade has been thrown at me. Israeli quadcopters have circled overhead as instruments of intimidation. Sound bombs have become part of the atmosphere. Israeli snipers have opened fire on me eight times, most recently last Monday, while a group of us filmed the demolition of homes in Haddatha. Survival, repeated often enough stops feeling like triumph and just, almost mundanely, becomes another condition of witnessing.

This week brought another loss, one I had neither anticipated nor prepared myself to absorb. Its force has surprised me. Maybe grief does not become easier through repetition. Maybe each loss discovers a new vulnerability. For the next few days, I will step away from the field. Not because the work has become less necessary, but because mourning, too, demands its own uncompromising attention. My heart is in pieces.

آخر سنتين من حياتي كانوا تراكم مستمر للخسارات. أحبّة. زملاء. أصحاب. ناس انقصفوا وانقتلوا عن قصد على إيد الجيش الإسرائيلي. تعلّمت إنو الحزن ما بيجي كحادثة وحدة بتنتهي. بيتراكم. بيسكن بالجسد، لدرجة إنك بتبلّش تتساءل مش بس شو اللي خسرته، بل شو اللي بعده باقي منك.

في لحظات بحسّ إنّي خسرت جزء من إنسانيتي، بس لأنّي شهدت كل هالقدر من الموت. شفت ناس يموتوا قدّامي بطرق ما بتوصفها الكلمات. عشت على مقربة من إبادة جماعية وهي عم تصير، وشفت إبادة تانية مستمرّة بغزة، منقولة إليّ عبر شاشة ما بتطفي، شاشة ما بتترك مجال لوهم إنو في مسافة بتحميك. الصورة المستمرة على مدار أربع وعشرين ساعة ألغت الفرق بين إنك تكون قريب من الحدث أو مجرد متفرّج عليه. فيك تترك المكان، بس المكان ما بيتركك.

في صور بتفرض حالها إلى الأبد. أكتر من مرة شفت مسعفين حاملين أكياس فيها أشلاء أطفال. في مشاهد ما بتتحوّل إلى ذكريات، لأنّها ما بتغيب أصلًا. بتضلّ حاضرة، وبتعيد ترتيب العالم اللي جوّاتك.

قدّيش في إنسان يتحمّل حزن قبل ما يغيّر الحزن شكل روحه؟

ركضت قدّام دبابة ميركافا وهي عم تلاحقني. انرمت عليّ قنبلة. طائرات الكوادكوبتر الإسرائيلية ظلّت تحوم فوق راسي كوسيلة ترهيب. القنابل الصوتية صارت جزء من الهواء اللي منتنفّسه. والقنّاصة الإسرائيليون أطلقوا النار عليّ ثماني مرات، آخرها الاثنين الماضي، بينما كنّا مجموعة منّا عم نصوّر هدم البيوت بحَدّاثا. لما البقاء على قيد الحياة بيتكرّر مرارًا، ما بعود يُشبه الانتصار. بيصير مجرد شرط إضافي من شروط الشهادة على ما يجري.

وهالأسبوع حمل خسارة جديدة، خسارة ما كنت متوقّعها، ولا كنت مهيّأ استوعبها. وقعها عليّ كان أقسى ممّا تصوّرت. يمكن الحزن ما بيصير أخفّ مع التكرار. ويمكن كل خسارة بتكتشف نقطة ضعف جديدة فينا. لهيك رح ابتعد عن الميدان كم يوم، مش لأنّ الشغل صار أقلّ ضرورة، بل لأنّ الحداد، هو كمان، بيطالب بحقه الكامل، ومن دون أي مساومة.

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

The fox came for the lamb at dusk on Sunday, which is what foxes do to lambs at dusk, and met Eduardo, which is not what the fox had planned for.

The lamb should not have been out there at all. Its mother died lambing weeks ago, and by every rule of the season a motherless day-old is a fox's certain supper. The farmer had meant to bring it in. He tried something first, because Eduardo was in the field, and Eduardo is what he is.

Eduardo is a Huacaya alpaca, and alpacas guard. It is bred into a creature that spent thousands of years as a sentinel on Andean hillsides, the instinct to put itself between the herd and the threat and stare the threat down until the threat does the arithmetic and leaves. The farmer had wondered whether that instinct would stretch to a lamb of the wrong species. It stretched. Eduardo adopted the orphan on day one and has not left its side since, and the lamb, studying the wrong tutor with total devotion, has taken to grazing head-up and scanning the horizon like a small confused alpaca.

8:40pm. The light going, the field grey. The fox came in low along the bottom hedge, on the line foxes always take, reading the lamb and not, at first, reading the tall thing standing over it.

Eduardo saw it at forty metres. He did not panic and he did not run, because guarding is the opposite of both. He turned to face the hedge, put himself square between the fox and the lamb, lifted his head to its full considerable height, laid his ears flat, and began to move at the fox in the flowing, deliberate, deeply unsettling way a committed alpaca moves at a thing it has decided is leaving.

The fox did the arithmetic. A fox is a mathematician above all else, and the sum of one small lamb against one large animal that has clearly done this before and is not remotely afraid came out heavily on the side of going home hungry. It broke off and slid back through the hedge and was gone.

Eduardo watched the hedge for a while longer, because a job is not finished when the threat leaves, only when it stays gone. Then he went back to the lamb, did the long careful camelid inspection, hummed once, and resumed grazing head-up, on watch, the way he has grazed every night since the ewe died.

The lamb is alive this morning, which a lamb in its position frequently is not. It thinks it is an alpaca. Eduardo is not going to be the one to tell it otherwise, and last night, for the second time, he earned the right not to.

[Daniel Lismore @daniellismore]

I TOLD YOU THE TRUTH. ALL OF IT.
For over a year I have been writing about Reform UK and Nigel Farage. I have told you what was happening inside that party. I have told you about the corruption, the financial questions, the internal war, the people positioning themselves to replace him.
Every single thing I told you has come out in the last few days. Every single thing.
And throughout that entire year, you called me a liar.
You gave me the stupid nicknames. You demanded I reveal my source. I will not. What I will tell you, as I have stated before, is that my information comes from inside Reform. That is why it was accurate. That is why it came out. That is why you are reading about rats in a sack on the front pages today.
You did not just call me a liar. You sent me death threats. You threatened my life. You tried to have me cancelled. You piled on in groups. You discussed me in your Reform forums. I have seen the group chats. I know who is behind it. I have that information.
I will go hard on every single one of you who crossed the line. You will not enjoy it.
I reach 30 million people a week. I am a journalist. I write when I want to. I will not be intimidated.
I said approximately five weeks ago that Farage had around six weeks left. I was one week out. I do not believe he has it in him to continue, for reasons I will not disclose yet.
I want you to understand why I did this. I did it because I cannot stay silent when the people of this country deserve so much better than corruption and hatred. I had no reason to lie. My life is extraordinary. I am privileged in ways most people will never experience. I spend my time with people Nigel Farage wishes he could get access to. I did not need to do any of this.
But I did it because I genuinely care. If I deserve to know the truth, you deserve to know the truth.
I am not asking for an apology. I know your hatred is stronger than your conscience.
What I am telling you is this. You stepped over the line with the wrong person.
I have unlimited resources. I have zero fear. I have a team. And I have all the time in the world to come for you if you came for me.
You picked the wrong person.

There is more to come about Reform and Farage.

And to the people of Clacton: I spent a day with many of you recently and I was genuinely moved by your warmth, your pride and your potential. You deserve so much better than what you have been given. Nigel Farage does not care about you. He never did. You were always just a backdrop for his narcissistic ambition. Pawns in his pantomime.

Clacton Make the right decision. You know what it is.
🐸🚬👉🗑️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧☕️🫖

[Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la]

This move is a massive victory for Turkey and a huge loss for Israel. Israel wants a weak and illegitimate Syria it can control and carve up. This open up the road to a stronger Syria, backed by the US, Turkey and the Gulf States:

1) Syrian banks can now reconnect to the global financial system (SWIFT, correspondent accounts). Expect Gulf and Turkish capital to start flowing in months, not years.

2) That means Turkish construction firms and Gulf sovereign funds can now sign real deals: power plants, ports, housing, roads. Syria's rebuild is a $250–400B question, and the contracts get carved up now. Turkey is first in line on the border and northern corridors.

3) The US just anointed Turkey as Syria's senior patron. Ankara has the troops, the proxies, and the border ties that Gulf money can't replicate.

4) Turkey's whole project is a strong, centralized Syrian state. That's the exact opposite of the failed-state buffer Israel prefers on its frontier.

This will make the Israeli project of destroying Syria more difficult to accomplish. It has been made clear that the US and its allies oppose this goal. Will they be willing to go against this powerful coalition that has clearly marked al-Jolani as their man?

[sarah @sahouraxo]

BREAKING:

Israel is blowing up civilian homes in Taybeh, South Lebanon.

A village that has stood for 7,000 years is now being reduced to rubble.

During a “ceasefire.”

No justification. No military targets.

Just destruction, terror, and war crimes unfolding in plain sight.

[Nick @MEDINACAFE]

@kalanighost

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

‼️ Listen to BBC Today:

Q: “What is your appeal going to be to the people of Clacton?”

Count Binface: “Well… I’m not Nigel Farage.”

😂

Farage called this by-election to dominate the headlines. Instead, he’s handed @CountBinface a national platform.

[The Aftershock @The_Aftershock_]

BREAKING: Uncle Said was arrested for disrupting the production of engines for Israeli killer drones in Elbit's weapons factory in Shenstone, Staffordshire.

[Crewkerne Gazette @CrewkerneGaz]

Doctor Who, Jacob Rees-Mogg and his assistant Steve travel to Clacton in 2046, where the phallic-neck Daleks have seized power.

Their only hope? Return to 2026 and find Count Binface to take on Nigel Farage.

{satire}

[Andrey X @the_andrey_x]

This is Nevo Nadalski.

He is one of the main people organising attacks against the Palestinian village of Umm al-Kheir. He is the military coordinator of Carmel settlement. He is present at every attack against Palestinians in the area.

Make him famous.

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

Reform UK's candidate for Clacton:

[Voice of Rabbis @voiceofrabbis]

Video showing real face of zionists

Zionists set fire to the house of a prominent Jewish anti-Zionist activist in Mea Shearim, a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem, while his family was inside the house

The only crime of this family was that they were religious and opposed Zionism and Israel.

[Sarah Wilkinson @swilkinsonbc]

The israelis have already killed one of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya’s sons, & now it’s Dr Hussam’s turn: go viral, be loud, #Say .. before it’s too late

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

The cure for despair is awe, wonder, and humility.

It is true that there is unfathomable cruelty in this world that will bring you crashing to your knees. And it is true that we are ruled by monsters with deeply entrenched power.

But it is also true that we live in a mysterious universe whose ways are almost entirely unknown to us. And it is also true that we don’t really have any idea where humanity’s adventure is headed.

We are made of particles too small for our minds to imagine, spinning through an expanse of blackness too vast for our minds to comprehend, because we are naked apes whose fleshy brains were evolved for the purpose of obtaining fruit and meat, not for understanding absolute reality and cracking the enigmas of the cosmos.

Our best scientists have produced no answers to any of life’s most significant questions, having to content themselves with a humble shrug over the most basic inquiries like why anything exists, what matter is, and what is the nature of consciousness. The greatest minds of the last two hundred years were baby monkeys poking at a supercomputer and yelping at the beeps.

We come into this world dazzled and clueless, we stumble around making our best guesses for a few years, and then we take our exit with more or less the same amount of knowledge we had when we showed up. An insignificant rounding error’s worth of understanding, in the grand scheme of things.

All I’m saying is we don’t actually know what’s going on, and it’s helpful to hold some humility about this while taking action and trying to effect positive change in the world. We’re all just children trying to figure this thing out together based on a very, very limited understanding of what’s happening and how things work.

We’re going to fail a lot. We’re going to lose a lot. We’re going to make a ton of mistakes. We’re going to get confused. Of course we are. We’re a bunch of cute little idiots.

So what do we do? We keep trucking along. We stumble through life trying to make the world a better place as effectively as we can, making our best guesses about the next step to take along the journey using these dopey little monkey brains that our species evolved a blink of an eye ago.

We study. We organize. We take action. We talk to people. We go to meetings and have patience with how stupid and frustrating they can be. We share our tiny little cups of information with those who don’t have it and open people’s minds to the possibility that a better world is possible.

And in the meantime, there’s awe and wonder. No matter what happens or how badly things go, for a few short years we get to be on this astonishingly beautiful planet together. We get to look at its beauty with our eyes, listen to its beauty with our ears, let its beauty sing its glory in the physical sensations in the body, as we meander around through a fascinating world that we will never, ever understand.

How great is that?

You have access to this always, in each moment. Start from where you are. The emotions you’re feeling in your body. The thoughts dancing around in your head. The visual field right in front of you. The sounds in the room. The feeling of the air moving through your respiratory system. The feeling on your flesh of whatever surface our planet’s gravity is holding you to right now.

It’s an explosion of miracles, and it is radiantly beautiful. If you can’t find the beauty right now, keep looking. It’s there. I swear to you it is.

If you can let the beauty and wonder in while doing what you can to improve the world, there is no reason despair should ever touch you. Just put in your best effort while relishing each moment of this delicious terrestrial existence, and despair will find no purchase within you.

[Bécquer 🇪🇸✒🔡 @GustavoAdolf_]

"Hoy ha venido a comprar a mi carnicería, el director de mi banco, primero de todo le he hecho sentarse en una silla unos 30', mientras yo hacía otras cosas en mi negocio. Cuando me ha parecido le he preguntado qué deseaba, a lo que me ha respondido que unas hamburguesas, yo le he dicho que las hamburguesas ahora sólo las vendíamos los viernes, luego me ha pedido chorizos y le he dicho que sólo las vendemos de 8,30 a 10,00 los martes y jueves. Entonces me ha pedido un pollo cortado a cuartos, yo le he dado el pollo, los cuchillos y las tijeras, y le he dicho que se lo tenía que cortar él. Como era de esperar, me ha contestado que él no lo sabía hacer y que era mi trabajo, mi respuesta ha sido que por tratarse de la primera vez le ayudaría, pero que en lo sucesivo lo debería hacer él solito y le dije que en la página web y en la aplicación móvil están las instrucciones de cómo hacerlo, entonces me ha dicho que quería hablar con el encargado y mi respuesta ha sido que si no pedía cita previa sería del todo imposible hablar con él. Al final, se ha llevado el pollo troceado y una morcilla, de modo que yo le he cobrado el pollo, la morcilla más la correspondiente Comisión de Mantenimiento por el corte del pollo y por la atención prestada ya que no tiene la cuenta "Chuletón Master Gold Plus" que te compromete a comprar dos chuletones máster gold cada 15 días.
¿Os imagináis que tratásemos así a los clientes? Pues así es exactamente cómo nos tratan en los bancos. Un poco más de respeto. Que rule la historia a ver si se les cae la cara de vergüenza."
Atte. Tu carnicero del barrio.

[Yunus Paksoy @yunuspaksoy]

BEŞTEPE’DE LİDERLERE SUNULAN MENÜYÜ SİZİNLE PAYLAŞIYORUM:

•BAŞLANGIÇ
Taş Fırın Pide
Trabzon Tereyağı ve Hizan Karakovan Balı ile

Zeytinyağlı Sebze Sote
Yanık Denizli Yoğurdu ile

•ARA SICAK
Kayseri Mantısı
Yanık Denizli Yoğurdu ve İsli Ayaş Salçası ile

ANA YEMEK
Deniz Levreği
Tarama, Urla Sakız Enginarı ve Tokat Yaprağı ile

veya

Ağır Ateşte Pişmiş Dana Kaburga
Yanık Trabzon Tereyağı, Köz Patlıcan ve Kuzugöbeği Mantarlı Firik Pilavı ile

•TATLI
Sütlü Nuriye
Antep Fıstığı Köpüğü, Maraş Dondurması ve Bergamot ile

— BEYAZ SARAY

[Nick @MEDINACAFE]

@Alhumedhi Although there are large numbers of Gulf visitors to Trabzon, the city doesn't feel overwhelmed. There is plenty of space in the city and nearby, the streets are clean and tidy, services like taxis and buses are well organised and cheap. Visitors are treated with care and respect

[RS Archer @archer_rs]

We went to the Monaco GP this year and frankly expected to be charged a fortune for everything (and we were) but to see fans being ripped off like this by @SilverstoneUK is simply disgusting. This is not what motorsport in the UK should be.

[Dr Rahmeh Aladwan @doctor_rahmeh]

To make way for illegal jewish settlements, the IOF terrorists are bulldozing hundreds of olive trees to seize Palestinian land in Nablus, occupied West Bank.

They spare no human. No animal. No tree. The enemies of life.