DYSPEPSIA GENERATION

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Like Jeff Bezos? Or George Soros?

There’s a reason why the PDF that was shared says in red letters “Sourcing not provided for many claims in this section.” Start with the evidence that newspaper endorsements for president in 2024 were 54 for Kamala Harris and six for Trump, and that’s factoring in that the left-tilting Los Angeles Times and Washington Post were prevented by their owners from endorsing Harris as they had wanted.

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People set fire to an Ebola treatment center in a town at the heart of the outbreak in eastern Congo on May 21 after being stopped from retrieving the body of a local man, witnesses and police said.

“The police intervened to try to calm the situation, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful,”Alexis Burata, a local student who said he was in the area, told The Associated Press.

“The young people ended up setting fire to the center. That’s the situation.”

An Associated Press journalist saw people break into the center at Rwampara Hospital and set fire to objects inside, and also to what appeared to be the body of at least one suspected Ebola victim that was being stored there. Aid workers fled the treatment center in vehicles.

The crowd set fire to two tents fitted with eight beds run by a medical charity called The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), said Deputy Senior Commissioner Jean-Claude Mukendi, head of the public security department in Ituri Province.

Welcome to the Turd World. Be careful not to step in the Diversity.

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A shocking video making the rounds shows the reality of life under Los Angeles bridges: a sprawling setup of makeshift homes complete with lighting tapped into the city power grid, tables of items, and a self-contained community living off public resources.

Paul Graham.

How do you convert between wealth and income tax? If a government imposes a wealth tax of 1%, what’s the equivalent in income tax?

It’s clear from the way most politicians talk about the subject that they not only don’t know the answer, but don’t even realize there’s such a question.

In fact the conversion rate between them is about 20. A wealth tax of 1% is equivalent to an income tax of 20%.

To convert between wealth and income tax rates, you have to divide by the rate of return on capital. The conversion rate of 20 comes from assuming that the risk-free rate of return is 5%. Historically that’s an optimistic assumption. 4% might be more realistic. But 5% will do. [1]

If we run through an example it will be clear how this works. Suppose you have $100, you’re getting a 5% rate of return on this capital, and there’s a 20% income tax. The 5% rate of return means at the end of one year your $100 has made you another $5. But you have to pay 20% of that, or $1, in income tax, so your after-tax income is $4. At the end of the year, after paying taxes, you have $100 + $4 = $104.

Now suppose instead of a 20% income tax, there’s a 1% wealth tax. At the end of the year your $100 has made you another $5, as before. But that year you had to pay 1% of your $100, or $1, in wealth tax. So at the end of the year you have $99 + $5 = $104.

Each 1% of wealth tax is equivalent to 20% of income tax.

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Olabode Soniregun is a Nigerian man who migrated to Las Vegas and got U.S. citizenship (because in 2026, the rules are made up and the points don’t matter).

He then “fled” to the UK in November 2024, claiming he feared for his life because he is black and identifies as both Mormon and Jewish. No, really, that’s what he says.

You can’t make this shit up.

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You can’t make this shit up.

Naval News.

Needless to say, the U.S. Navy has nothing like this.

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Germany spent €24.8 billion on migration-related costs in 2025, according to the federal government’s “Refugee Cost Report,” cited by the finance ministry. Although this represented a decline of €3.2 billion compared to the previous year, the overall financial burden remained high.

A large share of federal spending went toward refugee and integration courses, as well as fixed payments to states and municipalities for asylum seekers. This included a lump sum of €7,500 per initial asylum application, transferred to the states through adjustments to value-added tax revenues. In 2025, advance payments totaled around €1.25 billion, though the federal government expects to reclaim approximately €250 million from the states afterward.

Despite these contributions, several federal states argued that their actual migration-related costs far exceeded federal reimbursements. Bavaria said its support for municipalities covering accommodation, care, and integration “significantly exceeds” the federal compensation payments. Hamburg also called for increased federal funding.

The report highlighted rising costs linked to unaccompanied minor migrants. In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, spending on accommodation and care for unaccompanied minors reached around €667 million in 2025, an increase of roughly €320 million compared to the previous year. State authorities warned that a rapid reduction in costs was unlikely because of the continuing high number of arrivals. Hesse also reported higher spending, with costs rising by around €30 million to €234.9 million.

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A new Johns Hopkins University survey shows that more than half of Baltimore respondents expect to move out of their current neighborhoods within three years, as the one-party-ruled state of Democratic Party queens and kings has failed taxpayers on affordability, law and order, and other basic issues commonly standard in red states.

The Hopkins survey, conducted from September to November 2024, found that 42% of Baltimore City residents want to leave the city entirely. Of those, 27% expect to stay somewhere else in Maryland, while 15% expect to leave the state, according to the Baltimore Sun.

The Great Sort proceeds apace.

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Alberta will hold a referendum on whether the province should remain in Canada or begin the legal process toward a future binding vote on separation, marking the first major test of Canadian unity in decades.

Thursday’s announcement by Premier Danielle Smith follows growing pressure from separatist groups after a citizen-led petition calling for independence gathered more than 300,000 signatures earlier this year. A separate petition supporting Alberta remaining in Canada reportedly gathered more than 400,000 signatures.

The independence movement has gained traction in the oil-rich province, driven by a long-standing belief among many Albertans that Ottawa overlooks the province’s interests, particularly over energy policy and natural resources. Despite this, opinion polls suggest most Albertans would vote against separation.

The referendum is scheduled for 19 October. Voters will be asked whether Alberta should remain a province of Canada or whether the provincial government should begin the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding referendum on separation.

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Europe’s largest mosque is under construction in Strasbourg, France.

The €25 million project is mostly funded by the “Islamic Community National View” (IGMG), a Turkish Islamic organization that manages 518 mosques and 2330 branches across Europe as well as in Australia and Canada.

In 2025, French MEP Marion Maréchal said that the organization was accused of “promoting a separatist, Muslim Brotherhood-style Islam”:

This radical organization is being used by [Turkish President] Erdo?an’s regime to maintain control over Turkish immigrant communities here in our country.

Maréchal added that French and European politicians, on both the Left and Right,

have rolled out the red carpet for Islamic communities with subsidies, building permits, loans, and land—all to buy their votes in elections. This compromise, openly embraced on the left, sometimes concealed on the right, comes at the cost of our security, and our identity, secularism, national cohesion, and, of course, the fight against Islamism.

This major mosque project in Strasbourg is the Eyyub Sultan Mosque (also referred to as the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg). Work on the project began in 2017. It is being constructed by the Germany-based “Islamic Community National View” or “Islamische Gemeinschaft Mili Görü?” (IGMG), which is reportedly supported through funding from Turkey and Qatar.

The Telegraph (UK).

Sergei Krajev, 64, who was described by his family as a “wonderful husband, father, and grandfather”, died following the incident on Battersea Bridge.

Police were called to the scene at 12.33am on Monday. Officers performed emergency first aid on Mr Krajev, who was then taken to hospital by London’s Air Ambulance.

The Transport for London bus driver died on Tuesday. His family are being supported by specialist officers.

Gary Jones, 32, of Twickenham, was arrested at the scene.

The Telegraph (UK).

Labour is planning a £1bn tax grab on family holidays even as Rachel Reeves unveils summer cost of living support for households.

HMRC officials are drawing up plans to impose VAT of 20pc on top of the fees that airports charge airlines to use their runways and terminals.

These fees are typically passed on to customers in full, meaning the move would heap more costs on holidaymakers and businesses. At Heathrow, the measures could add almost £5 to the current standard charge of about £24.

One airline industry insider said the Labour plan amounted to a “stealth tax” on families at a time when the cost of living crisis meant many people were already struggling to afford a holiday.

The Telegraph also understands that ministers are exploring the possibility of backdating the tax by as many as four years – the maximum permitted under current legislation.

The TImes (UK).

ergey Frolovichev, 46, is describing his “bat cave”. It is beneath the garden of his mansion in Hampstead, north London, which he has just spent £15 million — and more than five years — dismantling and rebuilding.

The room, the Anglo-Russian software supremo explains, can be accessed via a staircase from a corner of the living room, concealed by retracting floorboards — with the design inspired by his favourite film, The Dark Knight.

“It [the 2008 Batman film] was amazing, amazing special effects, everything,” says Frolovichev, who made a windfall by developing dating apps with his billionaire business associate, Andrey Andreev.

Vote Pattern Analysis.

In the early hours of November 4th, 2020, Democratic candidate Joe Biden received several major “vote spikes” that substantially — and decisively — improved his electoral position in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia. Much skepticism and uncertainty surrounds these “vote spikes.” Critics point to suspicious vote counting practices, extreme differences between the two major candidates’ vote counts, and the timing of the vote updates, among other factors, to cast doubt on the legitimacy of some of these spikes. While data analysis cannot on its own demonstrate fraud or systemic issues, it can point us to statistically anomalous cases that invite further scrutiny.

This is one such case: Our analysis finds that a few key vote updates in competitive states were unusually large in size and had an unusually high Biden-to-Trump ratio. We demonstrate the results differ enough from expected results to be cause for concern.

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A new study on the Shroud of Turin, the fabric that some Christians believe was wrapped around Jesus Christ after his death, could support a long-held belief about the biblical account of his burial.

Dr. Kelly Kearse, an immunologist who studied at Johns Hopkins University and now works as a chemistry teacher at Knoxville Catholic High School, found in a study of the shroud that the “washing hypothesis” that forensic pathologist Dr. Frederick Zugibe proposed in 1998 is contradicted by evidence collected from the shroud itself.

In her research, Kearse examined human blood samples to see how blood transfers to cloth and found that serum halos, or clear rings that form around blood clots, are visible on parts of the shroud.

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Aircraft manufacturing is on the cusp of its most profound transformation since the dawn of powered flight. The assembly line, a staple of industrial production for over a century, is about to be replaced by a far more efficient and cost-effective alternative — swarm robotics.

Swarm robotics is a manufacturing system in which autonomous robots work with a common “consciousness” guided by generative artificial intelligence, or “genAI,” to self-program a large-scale manufacturing process.

The assembly-line system, invented by Ransom Olds in 1901 and refined by Henry Ford in 1913 to make his cars, has dominated manufacturing. However, swarm robotics could transform the way large, complex structures such as airplanes and aerospace assets are built. The use of AI-driven, self-coordinating robots could enable faster, lower-cost production while delivering higher precision and enhanced safety.

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I usually focus on the building science of homes, HVAC, and indoor environmental quality. Today, though, I’m going to cover a topic of outdoor environmental quality. I’ve had mosquitoes in my backyard since we bought the house in 2019. This year, however, the yard is practically uninhabitable all the time because the constant rainfall has kept the yard wet and overpopulated with mosquitoes. That’s about to change because last week, I heard about the perfect solution: the Mosquito Bucket of Death.†

So, for the past few days I’ve been setting them up and putting them out in my yard. I’ve got four out there now and may add more. I wish I had started them in April because it takes a while for them to do their thing. And their thing is using an otherwise harmless bacterium to kill the mosquito larvae after the female mosquitoes lay their eggs in the bucket. Here’s a video showing a bit about how they work and how to set them up.

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Perhaps the greatest example that good policymaking intentions go awry is the minimum wage. Proponents of increasing the minimum wage argue that doing so will help the poor.

If we could snap our fingers and make the poor suddenly rich, there would be no reason to object. Unfortunately, in a world of scarce resources, this is not a possibility. The minimum wage actually tends to make many poor workers worse off and increases unemployment. A recent study on California minimum wage increases demonstrates that fact (yet again).

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Traditionally, prefabricated construction has meant large fixed factories churning out modules or panels that get shipped to building sites. The siren song is industrial-esque economies of scale in an industry that’s long evaded affordability and efficiency. But those centralized models, made infamous by companies like Katerra, General Modular Homes, and Skender, have faced challenges due to large up-front capex requirements and the hefty cost of shipping fabricated products to construction sites.

The emerging microfactory model flips that script. Instead of shipping bulky housing components from a distant plant, why not ship the factoryitself to the project? In other words, take a compact, automated production unit (often the size of a shipping container) and set it up right next to the jobsite. The factory becomes a portable product, and the building components are made where they’ll be used—a true inversion of the old “fixed factory, shipped goods” paradigm.

By making factories shippable and goods more locally produced, microfactories aim to capture the benefits of off-site fabrication (automation, efficiency, indoor conditions) without the drawbacks of centralized production.

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Seattle’s socialist-in-chief is no longer laughing about chasing away businesses and wealthy residents. But the attitude adjustment may be too little, too late.

Just a few weeks ago, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson infamously giggled when asked if she was concerned about wealthy residents fleeing Seattle because of her policies.

“I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are, like, super overblown. And if—the ones that leave, like, bye,” Wilson said to applause at Seattle University.

As I wrote at the time, this flippant attitude toward a potential wealth exodus was remarkably foolish.

Businesses and the “rich” were already leaving Seattle, but hitting the accelerator on leftist policies is causing a full-blown economic meltdown. The result will be a loss of hundreds of millions—likely even billions—of dollars in future tax revenue.

And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a political program based on taxing the rich doesn’t even begin to work if there are few rich to tax. But here we are. Reality is setting in.

Now for the consequences.

FA, FO.

New Scientist.

We have known of magnets for millennia. Today, they are at the heart of a raft of modern technologies, from electric generators and smartphones to loudspeakers and hospital scanners. And yet for 100 years, we have been missing something about them. We always assumed there were only two types. It was Šmejkal’s art-inspired insights that finally gave the lie to that in 2022.

Fast-forward to today, and we know that what Šmejkal called “altermagnets” aren’t just an idea. We have discovered real examples and are working out how to make this new kind of material in practical and useful ways. There is even a possibility that these magnets could help us build a completely new kind of computer. “Altermagnets could actually have all the functionalities of current devices, but much faster, with less energy consumption, and smaller,” says Šmejkal.

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Ask yourself why all American universities follow a German model rather than a British model for how they operate.

In fact, a university structured on the British model would invariably fail accreditation in the U.S.

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The Western world lives under the rule of law and holds sacred the institutions that enforce them. We believe in contracts, in due process, and in a system of justice that is fair, at least in theory. But what happens when that system frays? What happens when there is a growing class that is above the law?

The unsettling answer is that an older, more brutal set of rules re-emerges. It’s a system of power that has governed humanity for nearly all of its history called tribalism.

Of course, tribalism is still thriving in the non-Western world. We see its effects in what we might call corruption, in political systems where votes are merely a show, and in societies where power, not law, is the final arbiter. From a Western perspective, we tend to disdain these systems as a moral failing. We don’t see a rational, time-tested system of power operating according to its own logic; we see a deviation from our own sacred ideals. This misunderstanding is a luxury, because when we mistake a power play for a moral lapse, we are left trying to appeal to a non-existent conscience, playing a game we don’t even know has begun. And in the emerging conflicts of the 21st century, those who don’t understand the rules of the tribe will be the first to fall.

Astral Codex Ten.

The mid-20th century was the golden age of nurture. Psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and the spirit of the ‘60s convinced most experts that parents, peers, and propaganda were the most important causes of adult personality.

Starting in the 1970s, the pendulum swung the other way. Twin studies shocked the world by demonstrating that most behavioral traits – including socially relevant traits like IQ – were substantially genetic. Typical estimates for adult IQ found it was about 60% genetic, 40% unpredictable, and barely related at all to parenting or family environment.

By the early 2000s, genetic science reached a point where scientists could start pinpointing the particular genes behind any given trait. Early candidate gene studies, which hoped to find single genes with substantial contributions to IQ, depression, or crime, mostly failed. They were replaced with genome wide association studies, which accepted that most interesting traits were polygenic – controlled by hundreds or thousands of genes – and trawled the whole genome searching for variants that might explain 0.1% or even 0.01% of the pie. The goal shifted toward polygenic scores – algorithms that accepted thousands of genes as input and spit out predictions of IQ, heart disease risk, or some other outcome of interest.

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Every March and November, Americans dread the notification in their inbox or on the news to “Remember to change your clocks!” Most of us rely on the adage “Fall back in fall—spring forward in spring” to sort out the confusion of which way the clock is moving. But you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who gets excited about the biannual shift.

However, many Americans do love the later hours of sunlight daylight saving time affords. With equal fervor, others, particularly older people, dislike the thought of getting up in the dark that accompanies it.

It is this lack of consensus, as well as significant pushback from health experts, that has stalled the “Sunshine Protection Act” (H.R. 139) in the House Energy and Commerce Committee since the beginning of 2025. The broader effort to pass similar versions of the bill has been ongoing since 2018.

Now, it looks as if the sun will rise again on an amendment to make DST permanent for all states, and without much notice.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce late Tuesday night announced a markup meeting for Thursday, May 21 at 10 a.m. On the agenda was a proposal to fold the language of the Sunshine Protection Act into the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act (H.R.7389).

This latest attempt would mandate permanent daylight saving time in all states that don’t self-exempt before its effective date, and it would prevent self-exemption after its effective date.

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A Brussels court has granted Mohamed Bakkali, a convicted terrorist involved in the murderous 2015 Paris attacks, temporary release from prison.

According to the Belgian outlet La Libre, Bakkali is permitted six periods of leave from his cell of up to 36 hours each in duration. The judiciary justified a decision, citing his good behaviour. While the public prosecutor’s office strongly opposed these furloughs, it was reportedly denied the opportunity to appeal.

Bakkali, who helped plan the Paris atrocity and arranged accommodation for the perpetrators, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2022. He also received a 25-year sentence for a foiled separate railway attack.

After conviction in France, he was transferred to Belgium, his country of citizenship.

The Belgian justice system allows inmates to apply for temporary release after serving just one-third of their sentence, significantly earlier than the two-thirds requirement in France. Expected to be permanently released in 2040, Bakkali has already received five previous furloughs since last July.

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The deportation of Syrian citizens from Germany has been virtually paralyzed despite the political announcements made by Berlin in recent months. A key reason is that Damascus has stopped issuing replacement travel documents for Syrian nationals facing deportation.

According to recently published information, since the end of January no German federal state has received the type of documentation required to carry out forced returns of individuals lacking valid passports or complete identity documents.These replacement documents are an essential requirement in deportation procedures. Without them, authorities may face serious legal and operational difficulties in carrying out returns even when a final deportation order exists.

German federal authorities have not officially confirmed the blockage, although they have not denied it either.

The issue currently affects around 11,000 Syrian citizens who are under an immediate legal obligation to leave Germany, according to data from the German Federal Police.

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The Supreme Court determined that a U.S.-based company—Havana Docks—can recover damages from four major cruise lines that used its docks previously confiscated by the Cuban government.

Havana Docks, a U.S. company, built docks in Havana’s port before the Cuban Revolution. The Castro regime revoked the company’s legal right to the docks, and the company later sued cruise lines that used the docks, claiming they were liable for trafficking in confiscated property. The cruise lines argued that the company’s legal right to the docks would have expired by then, regardless of confiscation.

In an 8-1 ruling issued on Thursday, Justice Clarence Thomas found that Havana Docks “did not have to prove that the cruise lines interfered with a property interest that would have existed in the counterfactual scenario in which the Cuban government did not confiscate it.”

“The cruise lines’ use of the docks is sufficient to establish that they used ‘property which was confiscated by the Cuban Government,’” Thomas wrote.

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You first.

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The former leader of a Minnesota nonprofit who was convicted for her role at the center of a staggering $250 million fraud case that helped ignite a federal immigration crackdown should spend 50 years in prison, prosecutors argued in a court filing.

Aimee Bock, who ran the organization Feeding our Future, which claimed it helped provide millions of meals to children in need during the pandemic, is set to be sentenced Thursday in federal court in Minneapolis.

“Feeding Our Future operated like a cash pipeline, open to anyone willing to submit fraudulent claims and pay kickbacks,” prosecutors said in the Monday filing. “The ripple effects of her actions are profound, immeasurable, and will have lasting consequences for both Minnesota and the nation.”

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Belgian coastal police are urging urgent reinforcements as authorities struggle to contain a growing wave of UK-bound small boat crossings, which officials say are becoming increasingly dangerous and harder to intercept.

Police chiefs told a parliamentary committee that after several years of relative calm, Belgium’s coastline has seen a sharp rise in human trafficking activity, with smuggling networks shifting operations away from France due to tighter enforcement measures. As a result, departure points have increasingly moved toward Belgian coastal areas used for Channel crossings.

Local forces warn that the situation has become significantly more volatile. Officers report growing aggression during interventions, with some smuggling groups reportedly accompanied by individuals described by police as “violent ex-soldiers” from countries including Iraq and Afghanistan. Authorities say these individuals are being used to protect boats at launch sites and deter police from approaching.

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For decades, scientists believed ancient humans avoided dense rainforests, treating them as nearly impossible environments for early survival. But a groundbreaking discovery in West Africa is rewriting that story. Researchers uncovered evidence that humans were living deep within rainforest environments in present-day Côte d’Ivoire around 150,000 years ago — far earlier than anyone thought possible.

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Scientists have discovered that the human body undergoes a dramatic internal transformation during extended fasting, with major changes appearing only after about three days without food. In a seven-day water-only fasting study, researchers tracked thousands of proteins in the blood and found widespread shifts affecting organs throughout the body — including the brain. While the body quickly switches from burning glucose to fat, the most intriguing biological changes linked to potential health benefits didn’t emerge until later in the fast.

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A new study suggests humans became overwhelmingly right-handed because of two major evolutionary shifts: walking on two legs and developing much larger brains. Researchers found that as human ancestors evolved, their right-hand preference steadily intensified — transforming a mild tendency into one of humanity’s most distinctive traits.

When you’re right, you’re right.

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Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have created a remarkable new material that works like a “rechargeable solar battery,” storing sunlight inside tiny molecules and releasing it later as heat — even long after the sun goes down. Inspired by reversible changes found in DNA and photochromic sunglasses, the system captures solar energy without relying on bulky batteries or the electrical grid. The molecule can hold energy for years and packs more energy per kilogram than lithium-ion batteries.

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Analyzing carefully the living habits of past Mediterranean agrarian societies one eventually comes to the realization that the continuous, unbroken and uninterrupted eight hour sleep schedule didn’t exist and is in fact, a totally modern invention and a consequence of the rigid 9-5 work schedule.

Without artificial lighting the movements of the Sun dictated the beginning and end of the day. Life was lived in accordance and balance with Nature and sleep was no exception. An unbroken eight hours of sleep did not always fit with the cycles of the sky above and sleep was therefore rhythmically polyphasic.

In the Summertime this manifested as the siesta. The midday sun making work or activities outdoors impossible, people stopped work, spent time with their families, ate their main meal of the day and then napped. Refreshed and energized, work resumed in the cool hours of the afternoon and the day went on late into the night. Come time for the second sleep, eight hours weren’t needed and a late night paired naturally and effortlessly with an early rise the following morning.

In the Wintertime this manifested as a sort of backwards and opposite siesta, a short wakeful period in the middle of the night between two sleeps. This makes perfect sense when you realize the duality and opposition of Summer’s long days and short nights with Winter’s short days and long nights. People went to sleep with the sun, woke in the middle of the night to stoke the fire and do chores for the following day before again going back to sleep and waking near or at sunrise.

Sometimes the old ways are best.

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Residents of a quiet East Sussex town have been left with no choice but to patrol their own streets after the leftist Labour government dumped hundreds of unvetted male migrants into a former army camp on their doorstep.

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Politicians in Britain are complaining about “ideological nonsense” being instilled into young children, following new reports on the teaching of racism in schools.

An “anti-racism” lesson plan devised by a group of schools in Sheffield is being used to ‘teach’ teenagers that while white people can be racist towards black people, racial prejudice the other way around does not count as racism, which is defined as “racial prejudice plus power.”

Quillette.

Nicholas Kristof’s 11 May New York Times column (“The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians”) and its accompanying video demonstrate the halo effect that protects many non-governmental organisations from the scrutiny they deserve. In addition to the testimony provided by security prisoners (suspected or convicted terrorists) released from Israeli prisons, Kristof’s essay relies upon quotes from unverifiable NGO reports or statements, and from a United Nations committee that recycles the accusations those statements and reports contain.

The NGO at the centre of Kristof’s essay calls itself the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med or EMHRM), which Kristof blandly describes as “often critical of Israel.” Registered in Switzerland in 2015, this Palestinian NGO has a mailing address in Geneva and an unknown number of staffers paid with funds from undisclosed donors. The publication of a 69-page Euro-Med report on 12 April was the source of Kristof’s accusation that Israel “employs systematic sexual violence” that is “widely practiced as part of an organized state policy.” The report was accompanied by an extensive public-relations campaign, which included promotion in Turkish-government-controlled news platform TRT, Qatar-linked propaganda platform Middle East Eye, and many other outlets that routinely promote invented or tendentious stories about Israel.

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Earlier this month, Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s latest political incarnation, proposed one of the sharpest political ideas of modern times: to site new migrant detention centres in areas that vote heavily for the Green Party, which famously advocates for a “world without borders”. Likely locations include the historic Green Party stronghold of Brighton, but after last week’s local election success the list could easily extend to newly-won councils in Norwich, Hastings, as well as the London boroughs of Hackney, Lewisham and Waltham Forest. This is nothing short of a masterstroke in political simplicity: holding people to the professed beliefs they routinely foist on others.

The genius of such a policy lies in its symmetry. For years we have been told that opposing mass, uncontrolled migration is “racist”, “far-right” and “morally bankrupt”. Those who preach this gospel however, have customarily done so from the safety of low-crime, high-property-value postcodes, where the practical consequences of their ideology are someone else’s problem. Reform’s proposal flips the script. It says: you voted for it, you lecture the rest of us about it, you obviously believe in it – now live with it on your own doorstep.

Far from mere politicking, the idea demands the bare minimum of political integrity – for politicians and voters alike. Democracy works best when the electorate understands that their choices have consequences. ‘Virtue-signalling’ meanwhile, that favoured indoor sport of the metropolitan Left, is designed specifically to reward the signaller while costing him precisely nothing. A rainbow flag on a social media profile, a ‘refugees welcome’ hashtag, or a solemn dinner-party declaration that Britain is a “nation of immigrants”, rarely come with the danger that such views will be tested in court.

The Telegraph (UK).

Two decades ago, Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth thrust climate change into the spotlight. With dramatic imagery and dire warnings, it transformed a niche concern into a front-page crisis, influencing rich country leaders and elite jet-setters, and inspiring a generation of activists.

Twenty years affords distance to reflect not just on the film’s impact, but also its accuracy. Many of Gore’s most alarming predictions have failed to materialise, while the policy response it helped inspire has proved extraordinarily flawed.

The documentary’s core narrative was that climate change was driving worsening disasters, such as floods, droughts, storms and wildfires.

The Telegraph (UK).

Three one-penny pieces and a farthing from 1882 among discovery on Lord Nelson’s flagship from Battle of Trafalgar

The Telegraph (UK).

Two Romanians who attacked a British-based Iranian journalist on a London street were “smiling” and “laughing” after stabbing him, a court has heard.

Pouria Zeraati was left bleeding in the street after being attacked by proxies of the Iranian regime in Wimbledon, south-west London, on March 29, 2024, prosecutors told Woolwich Crown Court.

Romanian nationals Nandito Badea, 21, and 25-year-old George Stana have both pleaded not guilty to charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and wounding.

The War Zone.

We now know the building goes six floors underground and will have “the greatest drone empire you’ve ever seen that’s going to protect Washington” on its roof.

Ein feste burg is unser Trump….

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The fight over “buffer zone” legislation in New York City entered a new phase on Wednesday, weeks after Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoed a bill allowing police to limit protests around “educational facilities.”

Mamdani and other detractors of the initial, highly contested bill said that it would chill free speech, particularly affecting pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. Its proponents said they would try to flip enough members of the City Council to override Mamdani’s veto.

Now, they may have reached a compromise: On Wednesday, City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced a revised version of the bill that excludes colleges and universities from the educational facilities subject to protest limits.

In an interview, Council Member Eric Dinowitz, who introduced the legislation Mamdani vetoed, said the new bill’s language was “slightly tweaked” so it could get “more broad support” from city lawmakers.

“There were some members who were uncomfortable with the ‘educational facility’ piece, so we targeted it towards early childhood centers, pre-K and K-to-12 schools,” Dinowitz said about the new version, called the Schools Safe Access bill.

Newsbusters.

After calling for an armed “rebellion” against President Trump earlier in the week, ABC News co-host Sunny Hostin boasted about Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) plan to have black college athletes boycott their scholarships to southern schools.

So southern schools will have to stock their teams with white players? Yeah, that will really advance the Democrat agenda.

I haven’t seen any indication that black players are eager to throw away the only hope they’ve got of getting rich just to play Stepin Fetchit for Democrats.