The ironies of protesting Israel:
The warship sent by Spain to protect the “Global Sumud Flotilla” heading to Gaza is kitted out with Israeli weapons.
The Furor is said to be "equipped with all necessary means", has a 76mm Oto Melara cannon and two MK-38 25mm automatic machine guns, all developed by Israel's Rafael defence group.
Even in sensible Switzerland. From Reduxx:
A man in Switzerland is facing 10 days in prison after refusing to pay a fine for an “offensive” social media post. Emanuel Brünisholz, a wind instrument repairman from Burgdorf, was convicted under anti-discrimination laws for making statement emphasizing skeletal evidence of binary sex.
A wind instrument repair man. There's a joke in their somewhere…
Brünisholz’s ordeal began in December of 2022 when he responded to a Facebook post by Swiss National Council member Andreas Glarner. In his comment, Brünisholz wrote: “If you dig up LGBTQI people after 200 years, you’ll only find men and women based on their skeletons. Everything else is a mental illness promoted through the curriculum.”
The reply, which highlighted the immutable nature of biological sex and played on a popular meme, quickly drew complaints from activists who filed reports with local police, alleging it constituted public incitement to hatred under Article 261bis of the Swiss Criminal Code. This provision, originally enacted in 1995 to prohibit the dissemination of ideas based on race, ethnicity, or religion that degrade human dignity, was expanded in 2020 to include a broad interpretation of “sexual identities.”
Burgdorf Police interrogated Brünisholz on August 15, 2023, launching a formal investigation into charges of discrimination and hate speech. During the questioning, conducted by the Regional Police Command Mittelland – Emmental – Oberaargau and documented in an official transcript, Brünisholz was interrogated about the “intent” behind his Facebook reply.
To the question, “What did you mean by this comment?” he replied: “Well, that those who think there’s not just man and woman, I want to tell them that there’s only man and woman.”
Seems fair enough. And of course absolutely true. But apparently it's belittling to LGBT(Q)I people. Well, belittling to the T portion of LGBT(Q)I people – the people who believe you can change sex.
The Bernese judiciary determined that “through his comment published on Facebook, [Brünisholz] has publicly belittled the group of LGBT(Q)I people based on their sexual orientation and in a way that violates human dignity.” He was issued a penal order fining him 500 Swiss francs (approximately $580 USD), convertible to 10 days of imprisonment if unpaid.
Yesterday a Maori demonstration -"jihadists not welcome here". Today:
Listen up
We have been telling you and telling you but no you woke leftists want to argue that trans existed pre colonial times. Kao
https://t.co/ydvpWWdLVM— ManaWāhineKōrero (@MKorero) September 26, 2025
Yesterday in the Jewish News:
A doctor who regularly posts diatribes about “Jewish supremacy” on social media and has called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel has been allowed by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) to continue practicing medicine while the General Medical Council investigates her conduct.
Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, who was also a member of Palestine Action before its proscription as a terrorist organisation, is now infamous within the British Jewish community for such claims as “the UK is occupied and controlled by Jewish supremacy – in fact, most Christian majority countries are”, and that the Royal Free Hospital in London, which has a large number of Jewish patients given its location, is a “Jewish Supremacy Cesspit”.
The health secretary has launched an unprecedented attack on the UK’s medical regulation system, saying he has “no confidence” in its ability to keep patients safe after a doctor who called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel was allowed to continue practising….
In a strongly worded statement to Jewish News, Health Secretary Wes Streeting responded to the MPTS ruling, saying: “The racist language of ‘Jewish supremacy’ reflects the values of Nazis, not the NHS. I fail to see how medics using such language with impunity doesn’t undermine confidence in the medical profession. I have no confidence in the ability of our medical regulation system to keep patients safe and I am taking urgent advice on next steps.”
The numbers are in.
UNGA condemnations, 2015-2025:
🇰🇵 North Korea 10
🇦🇫 Afghanistan 1
🇻🇪 Venezuela 0
🇲🇲 Myanmar 9
🇵🇰 Pakistan 0
🏴☠️ Hamas 0
🇩🇿 Algeria 0
🇹🇷 Turkey 0
🇷🇺 Russia 29
🇨🇳 China 0
🇶🇦 Qatar 0
🇸🇦 Saudi 0
🇮🇱 Israel 173
🇨🇺 Cuba 0
🇸🇾 Syria 12
🇮🇶 Iraq 0
🇮🇷 Iran 10
🇺🇸 U.S. 11— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 26, 2025
On the other hand, in North Yorkshire:
British police officers have been accused of acting like the 'Stasi of East Germany' after they arrested a man last night over a social media post.
Pete North was arrested at around 9:30pm at his home in Easingwold for a public order offence after he shared a meme on August 5 on X which read: 'F*** Hamas, F*** Palestine, F*** Islam. Want to protest? F*** off to a Muslim country and protest'.
The activist, who also has autism and tourettes, shared the exchange on his social media page where it has quickly gather more than 800,000 views.
The clip shows two North Yorkshire officers confront Pete and his wife as a 'hate team' have concluded that 'there are offences there we need to explore,' before going on to say there are concerns he is spreading 'racial hatred'.
He is then arrested and taken to Harrogate police station for further questioning, where he remained in an outdoor cell for about four hours before being interviewed.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, North said: 'I'm disgusted by the police, because they could have done this in an orderly, civil way, but they chose maximum intrusion, and it was essentially [being treated like] an act of terrorism.
'They were trying to find evidence that I had intended to stir up racial hit with it. Which is unbelievable. It's crass. The meme itself is a controversial sentiment, but controversial is not illegal, and it happens to be my opinion.'
North has since been release on unconditional bail until December 21 but said the tweet in question is still 'a sentiment I wholly endorse'….
Lord Young of Acton, head of the Free Speech Union told the Daily Mail: 'Pete North is a member of the Free Speech Union and we're on the case. The police's behaviour is reminiscent of the Stasi in East Germany.
'I wouldn't be surprised if Pete has a case for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment. Last time I checked, criticising a proscribed terrorist organisation and its supporters isn't a criminal offence.'
Well…
In New Zealand, native Māori are protesting against Islamic immigration, tearing down a jihadist flag while performing the traditional Haka.
“New Zealand is a Christian nation!
The jihadists are not welcome here!” pic.twitter.com/aPLz0wY7Nx— Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) September 23, 2025
Yes, Trump and RFK deserve all the brickbats coming their way, but, um, weren't their critics right behind the whole trans agenda? American medicine lost its reputation a while back. Malcolm Clark at Spiked:
Welcome to a new dark age of American medicine.
This week, Donald Trump gave credence to claims about the MMR vaccine that have been disproven by rigorous medical research. The US president claimed that jabs for measles, mumps and rubella ought to ‘be taken separately’ to avoid ‘problems’. Accompanied by US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump also added that pregnant women should ‘fight like hell’ not to take Tylenol, the US brand name for paracetamol. He implied that taking the widely used painkiller in pregnancy is linked to a ‘meteoric’ rise in autism diagnoses.
These claims have, understandably, been met with a backlash. Experts have tried to reassure the public that MMR and paracetamol are safe. But will anyone listen? Unfortunately, many of Trump and RFK’s fiercest critics undermined their own credibility long ago by promoting equally unscientific ideas – not least the notion that kids can be born in the wrong body.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is one such opponent. ‘You were lying’, she said of Kennedy’s Covid-vaccine stance during a senate hearing earlier this month. Warren was joined in her attack by other Democrat members, including Tina Smith and the left’s prince over the water, Bernie Sanders.
You would hardly have guessed that just two years ago, this same trio put their name to a motion demanding a ‘trans bill of rights’, which aimed to enshrine in law the most extreme version of the trans agenda. The bill would have rendered references to ‘biological sex’ in US discrimination laws meaningless. It would have prevented states from limiting ‘life-saving’ gender-affirming healthcare for children – including puberty blockers, which cause irreversible harm, such as sterilisation. It would also have forced schools, sports organisations and employers to disregard the needs of women and girls.
It wasn’t just politicians who were misusing science. The bill began by citing a list of medical organisations that supported its assumptions about sex and gender – effectively a who’s who of America’s clinical establishment, ranging from the College of Physicians and the Public Health Association to the American Medical Association. In other words, organisations representing the vast majority of America’s doctors were prepared to lend credence to claims about biological sex and ‘gender medicine’ that were scientifically nonsense.
The cries of outrage now lose some of their power when you consider the medical absurdities – telling children they can change sex – that these people have themselves supported.
Edy Cohen at the JC provides a useful reminder of the six times Palestinian leaders rejected a state:
The Palestinian leaders’ consistent rejection of peace initiatives over the past 88 years not only calls into question their commitment to coexistence with Israel but to the welfare and safety of their people.
Taking into account all the initiatives proposed to end the conflict, we must consider the possibility that the Palestinians – or at least their leaders – do not want to establish their own state.
Their sights are currently set on the big prize — the entire state of Israel — and they are playing for time. In the mean time, they plan to continue to subsist on funds donated by the Arabs and the Europeans.
Many of the Arab states have grown disenchanted with this enterprise, however, and assistance – particularly from the Saudis – has been discontinued in recent years.
President Donald Trump has also reduced the flow of US support. Only the Europeans remain committed to the implacable Palestinian narrative….
Read on for the details.
As he wryly observes, "a minority of people who voice views about the conflict know anything about its history".
Carole Hooven was bullied out of Harvard for stating that in biology there are only two sexes. Now, shocked by an article in Lancet – a review of Agustin Fuentes' book which argues that sex isn't binary (see Jerry Coyne) – she takes to the pages of Tablet:
Recently I came across a book review by Sarah Richardson, professor of the History of Science and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. She is also the head of Harvard’s GenderSci Lab, whose work aims to “counter bias and hype in sex difference research, elevate the importance of context, contingency, and variation in the study of gender and sex in biology … and engage the implications of biological claims about gender and sexual diversity for law and public policy relevant to the lives of gender and sexual minorities."
Although Professor Richardson and I profoundly disagree about the nature of sex, I once invited her to give a guest lecture in my class, and we’ve had many cordial interactions over the years. So I was surprised by what she wrote in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. I was not surprised that Richardson lavished praise on the new book Sex Is a Spectrum, by Princeton anthropologist Agustín Fuentes. However, I was taken aback at her attack on the character and motives of those who hold that sex is binary and that organisms are classified as male or female depending on their capacity to produce, respectively, sperm or eggs.
Richardson not only thinks the “gametic” definition of sex is wrong; she also insists that its adherents have sinister political motives:
Although the gametic definition makes reference to biological systems, it is sophistry, not science. Those who promote this definition favour the assertion that sex inheres in gamete (sperm and egg) production because, in part, it facilitates their political aims by fuelling unhinged panic in some quarters about transgender threats to traditional gender roles. … Like scientific bigots of yore … the recent favour bestowed on [this] definition of sex … appeals selectively to science to naturalise and rationalise inequality and exclusion.
Richardson goes on to praise Fuentes for recognizing scientists’ “responsibility to respond to harmful deployments of inaccurate, overly simplistic, and reductionist science by those attempting to naturalise and depoliticise their hateful views.”
It's the same old story. Objections to the view that sex is binary aren't because of the science, but because of ideology. People who who propose it aren't wrong: they're wicked.
Previously on this. As I pointed out then the editor of the "prestigious medical journal" The Lancet, Richard Horton, has quite a history…
Still editor-in-chief though.
Added: more on this from Jerry Coyne.