danbailan

Declinist repudiator on the fringes looking in;

[Ben Kentish @BenKentish]

Important to note that the UK Chief Rabbi is the senior rabbi for one orthodox, conservative branch of Judaism in the UK. As such as represents around 20% of Jews in the Britain. He shouldn’t be seen to be speaking for or on behalf of the other 80% - many of whom strongly disagree with his recent, highly politicised statements.

[Miles Deutscher @milesdeutscher]

Crazy to think that in 2026 we've had:

• Anthropic's head of safeguards quit, warning "the world is in peril" (Feb)
• OpenAI dissolved its own mission alignment team (Feb)
• Unrestricted AI usage for the Pentagon (causing several researchers to quit)
• Several AI models escaping sandbox testing (Since ~Q2)
• 1,100+ frontier-lab employees signing a letter begging the government to pace AI development (Jul-Aug)

And today yet another top researcher saying this.

[Ed Miliband @Ed_Miliband]

Together we are resolute.

My joint statement with the Foreign Ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

https://t.co/dortp6SmG8

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

I think Ed deserves credit and support for this. He will have driven it, and fair play to the PM for listening. Many wanted us to go further. We may yet, but this is a start and it should be welcomed.

The backlash from the US is already coming. That’s no surprise, given Trump and what he stands for. Being on the wrong side of the worst President of the modern era is probably a good place to be on this issue.

It remains to be seen how the government will stop settlement goods and services being laundered through Israel proper. But it’s a good start, and one that will mean a great deal to Palestinians, and to people here and abroad who want a values-based Britain.

There are signs from the Foreign Secretary’s statement that this is part of a wider reset of relations with Israel, and hopefully more active support for Palestinians. This offers encouragement that more will follow.

These positions are the bare minimum a Labour government should be taking, and it should never have taken so long to get here. For the moment though, it’s encouraging to see the party living up to some of our shared collective values.

https://t.co/xwbwmces6p

[Lowkey @Lowkey0nline]

Court records from a U.S. lawsuit revealed that the money he mentions here came directly from the Middle East Forum think tank.

The head of the Middle East Forum is Greg Roman. He is a former employee of the Israeli Ministry of Defence and the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

[Dexys Midnight Runners @DexysOfficial]

I, Kevin Rowland (the son of Irish immigrants) and the main songwriter of ‘Come On Eileen,’ am disgusted to learn that Nigel Farage has used our song to make his entrance for his party conference. Myself, and all of Dexys are passionately against Farage’s politics.

@ByDonkeys .

[Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) @CABS_REPORTS]

🚨 HUGE BIRD TRAPPING SITE SHUT DOWN IN ITALY

CABS team shut down the largest trapping site ever found targeting Pied flycatchers in the Alps nr Lake Garda!

Together with local police, we caught the poacher red-handed & seized 178 snap traps & 3 electronic decoys. 1/3

[Verbatim @Verbatim_Media]

Our yearlong investigation reveals Nigel Farage courting illicit funding as part of a plot to bring foreign money into British politics, orchestrated by his top aides and caught on hidden camera.

[Ami Dar @AmiDar]

This piece by the great Amira Hass, published in Haaretz today, is too urgent and important to be behind a paywall, so I've copied the whole thing here. Please read and share.

* * * * * * *

Israel Isn't Debating a Palestinian State. It's Preparing for Expulsion.

Gadi Eisenkot's position on Palestinian statehood is beside the point. Across Gaza, the West Bank and Israel itself, the machinery for making Palestinian life impossible is already operating, laying the groundwork for mass expulsion

Gadi Eisenkot, the election frontrunner and leader of the Yashar party, has a stance on a Palestinian state that is ultimately irrelevant. What is at stake today is not a "diplomatic solution," but the very existence of the Palestinian people between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The Israeli forces striving to "erase" them recognize no limits or restraints. Their supporters are too numerous for us to rely solely on the steadfastness and resilience of a people that has already endured expulsion plans carried out by Israel.

The world stands by. The left is tiny, weak and hoarse from sounding too many warnings. The anti-Bibi opposition oscillates among downplaying the danger, remaining indifferent to it and outright supporting expulsion. The sporadic condemnations, prompted mainly by something the U.S. ambassador posted on X, are about as useful as a sieve in a rainstorm. The Jewish Phalangists attack constantly and everywhere, not only in Qusra.

The debate over one state, two states or a federation is more theoretical than ever. Any agreed-upon solution requires first acknowledging the problem and agreeing on what it is. Too many Jews in Israel have been conditioned to believe that the problem is the very presence in this land of a Palestinian people with roots, historical and economic continuity, cultural capital and material assets, a rich agricultural heritage and a profound love of homeland.

"Erasure" is the nightmare solution being written into reality every day. Knesset laws, politicians' declarations, military orders, school textbooks and the holy real estate battalions operating in Gaza, the West Bank and the Negev all work, together and separately, to advance this "solution" diligently and without fear of international condemnation.

Israeli policy is directed toward making life unbearable for Palestinians wherever they live, so that their emigration can be described as an act of free will. Within Israel itself, the authorities give Arab crime organizations free rein to arm themselves and kill Palestinian citizens in their homes. In the West Bank, those same Israeli authorities give "God's battalions" free rein to arm themselves, kill and expel, while the official army continues its raids day and night. In devastated and thirsty Gaza, the government and the army cultivate armed militias of criminal collaborators, while Israeli pilots continue to launch missiles of revenge and retribution that claim the lives of still more children. All these testosterone-fueled displays are interconnected.

At the same time, Israel is destroying or severely restricting Palestinians' ability to earn a living. In Gaza, that mission has been completed. A "living dead" population of aid recipients, two million people carrying the weight of some 74,000 fresh graves, families and memories, talents and professions, and evaporated savings, is crammed into roughly 150 square kilometers of scorched earth. Creativity, resourcefulness and mutual aid are dwarfed by the scale of the destruction and by Israel's prohibition on rebuilding and recovery.

In the West Bank, the Finance Ministry's financial noose is tightening around the necks of approximately three million people and the Palestinian Authority. The systematic theft of revenues is compounded by the army's campaigns of destruction in cities and refugee camps, as well as by the other methods used to prevent Palestinians from cultivating and developing their land: checkpoints, bureaucratic prohibitions, fences and Israeli-Jewish shepherds.

Within Israel itself, the "Judaization of the Galilee and Negev" was and remains code for stealing land and resources from Palestinian citizens of Israel. Discrimination against them in allocations, subsidies and employment, along with building prohibitions and demolitions, has always featured prominently in official policy within the Green Line.

Let me reiterate: The very existence of the Palestinian people between the sea and the river is now in danger. Too many active forces are creating that danger: Israel's military might and capabilities; the cult of military service under all conditions and under every government; obedience as a value; weapons and military attacks as the default modus operandi; the normalization of PTSD among soldiers and of soldiers dying by suicide; the attractions of a military career and the doors it opens; the lure of an affordable villa in a Galilee exclusionary community or a settler suburb in Samaria; the falsehoods of official and unofficial propaganda; indifference to the hell on earth Israel has created in the Gaza Strip; denial of 60 years of occupation and forced rule; the Pavlovian response, "But October 7"; the synergy among the army, the government, the rabbis and the kippa-wearing militias in the West Bank; equanimity in the face of Lebanon's destruction; disregard for the occupation of more parts of Syria; the normalization of expulsion discourse; justice and education systems tainted by secular and religious racism; and the army of jailers who abuse thousands of Palestinian prisoners, both under orders and by choice.

Together, these and similar forces are creating the material, ideological and psychological infrastructure within Israeli-Jewish society for another mass expulsion of Palestinians and for what might accompany it: mass slaughter.

The heroes of the settler militias openly declare that expulsion is their goal. They clearly recognize the readiness of large segments of Israeli-Jewish society to participate in carrying it out, actively or passively, directly or indirectly. Through their daily provocations and crimes, committed in broad daylight and made possible only by institutional support, the Phalangists constantly seek to provoke a Palestinian act of rage and revenge that "succeeds," so that it can be exploited as the match that ignites a new holy war.

The Jewish Phalangists and the right-wing organizations that fuel them are counting on broad mobilization, including from the leaders, voters and supporters of Yashar and the liberal Democrats party, for a war that could already be given the slogan: "One people, one army, one land cleansed of Arabs."

[PROTECT ALL WILDLIFE @Protect_Wldlife]

That’s not a farm. That’s a prison.

A torturing concentration camp for animals.

No wonder the USA has such terrible animal welfare and food standards.

🎦 Credit: Jessie Vernon.

[GET A GRIP @docrussjackson]

The good thing about British democracy is that, no matter how gullible, stupid, hateful, racist, manipulated, brainwashed, or lacking in media literacy, critical thinking skills, or the ability to discern facts from fiction, anyone aged 18 or over who is registered to vote, who is a British, Irish or qualifying Commonwealth citizen, who is resident in the UK, and who is not legally excluded from voting can use their vote.

The bad thing about British democracy is that evil, selfish, unprincipled, divisive, sociopathic, opportunistic, bigoted multimillionaire cunts - who represent the interests of the evil, selfish, unprincipled, divisive, sociopathic, opportunistic, bigoted foreign billionaires who support them, and who despise, scapegoat, dehumanise and do not give a solitary shit about millions of decent British working-class men and women, nor about the 7 million non-white British people, nor the 16 million people who voted for Labour, the Lib Dems, Greens, SNP or Plaid Cymru in 2024, nor millions of people with disabilities - can become MPs and poison OUR country with their polarising hateful bullshit that belongs not in twenty-first-century Britain, but in 1930s Germany.

[Mark Ruffalo @MarkRuffalo]

The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel. To be clear, my views come from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people, for whom I have deep love and respect.  Everything I know about acting, activism, and humanism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues, and loved ones who have been integral and family throughout every point of my life.

This merger has real consequences for real people, and for the entire country. Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts, and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary. The $111 billion deal would hand one family control over CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., backed in part by foreign money whose influence on editorial decisions has never been fully explained to the public. 

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for serious national security review, and regulators still haven’t given the public a real answer. Until they do, the merger shouldn’t move forward. Now is the time to dive boldly into all these issues, not step back or concede.

[Ounka @OunkaOnX]

Israeli settlers stole a donkey from a Palestinian farmer - and dragged it behind a vehicle until it died. Footage shows the animal struggling as it's pulled.

Israeli settlers have once again proven that there is no bottom to their inhumanity.

[Mukhtar @I_amMukhtar]

In 2015, there was a campaign called “Tea Consent”, a public awareness initiative that used the analogy of offering someone a cup of tea to explain sexual consent to the British public. Nobody claimed then that this was an admission that all men in the UK were rapists.

[West Ham United @WestHam]

As we prepare to welcome a 62,500 sell-out crowd to London Stadium for our first home fixture of the 2026/27 EFL Championship season on Saturday afternoon, West Ham United would like to remind supporters of the responsibility we all hold to represent the Club in the right way.

[Paul Holden @pauleholden]

This is a very powerful, sensitive and plainly heartfelt piece to camera from Steven Methven reflecting on his role in the Arday story. It's worth watching. People will no doubt discuss this endlessly but it is rare to see journalists and media organisations hold their hands up, genuinely reflect on what happened, and then commit to doing better.

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

There was a pivotal moment when a responsible & resourced news org could have investigated the race science network behind the Jason Arday allegations.

It is a tragedy that hasn’t happened until now but this is a much needed corrective from @NafeezAhmed & @BylineTimes

https://t.co/zwGUGSkh5S

[extrémiste écossais @ACSpinner]

If the British press is so fearlessly independent and genuinely interested in meritocracy how come we still don't know why that young, white, blonde lady was elevated into the House of Lords by Boris Johnson ?

[csz @cszabla]

it’s a small thing but the fact the british media involved all use DEI as opposed to EDI tells you how much of all of this is downstream of downloading or playing to the american culture war template vs having actual direct experience in how UK universities are run

[Lateef 🙃 @LateefSaka]

DE&I or ED&I was not put in place to give unqualified people jobs, it was put in place to challenge why qualified people were not getting opportunities. Candidates still needed to meet requirements as both legal systems in the U.K. and the U.S. forbids handing out jobs on the basis of race or sex, it has always been a punishable offence.
Furthermore, the biggest and most well documented beneficiaries of DE&I and ED&I are white women despite social media having you think it’s Black people.

These people do not care about meritocracy because if they did, they would also be speaking out the fact that for centuries, qualified women, ethnic minorities and working class people of ALL races were excluded from many opportunities.