Facts are not the enemy. Facts are not aggression. Facts are not oppression. Facts are not genocide. They are, however, the building- blocks of democracy and peace.

A number of far left politicians, commentators & other useful idiots seem to have a very hard time understanding that fracturing a policewoman’s spine with a sledgehammer isn’t magically transformed into some beautiful act of protest because it was done for the Palestinian cause.

The Normandy village where David Hockney lived.

Announcing the 2026 Winners of the Women’s Prizes womensprize.com/announcing-t… via @Women's Prize for Fiction

Every single person who still cringes at the memory of trying to bullshit their way through an interview or exam question: today, the slate is wiped clean. Set down your burden of shame. Nothing - nothing, I say - could touch this.

When our undersea cables carrying 90 % of our data are cut, Russian warships cruise the channel, Russian planes fly at will across our air space, knowing that the government put 436 billion in the welfare kitty in the last financial year, will be a huge comfort.

No, he's not a stunning and brave human rights activist, he's a very silly little man. (Or a poor old dear being hoisted onto the toilet?)

Such a fantastic and truly illuminating lecture today at @britishmuseum ‘Ancient Israel and Judah in the British Museum’ And what an incredible speech by Director Dr Nicholas Cullinan; “Free speech and free expression are non-negotiable.” “We did not — and will not — surrender to the heckler’s veto, threats or intimidation.” “Protests are a healthy feature of democratic life when organised peacefully within the law. But disruption that prevents permitted conversations has no place in our civic spaces.” “This is a difficult moment for the Jewish community. Institutions face opposing pressures. Our test is to ensure ideas can be examined openly, without intimidation.”

This is Samuel Corner, sledgehammer raised, ready to strike the police woman lying at his feet, arm held out in a vain plea for mercy. Samuel Corner is not a martyr nor a "young activist", he's just a common-or-garden thug.

Look closely at the feet of the soldiers as they do the slow march; it's balletic. As a little girl in Sweden we would watch #TroopingtheColour on TV and my mother would invariably jump up from her chair to march up and down, demonstrating the wonders of that march. Happy days.

‘If you have to ask why I’m angry I’m not telling you’

Watching the magnificent #troopingthecolour and for a little while, I can imagine that all is well with the world. And yes, it's money extremely well spent, not least because it allows our wonderful, neglected armed forces their day in the sun - literally and metaphorically.

In the dead of night the Scots arrived at the Airbnb across the street. Decked out and playing the pipes at 6:30 am. So it begins…

Simon Schama on the pleasure-giving, life-affirming art of David Hockney ft.com/content/3862cf23-855b… via @ft So sorry to hear of the departure of the great DH.. here's what I wrote for the Vuitton show catalogue last year with some lovely images including "travel" along Mulholland Drive.

A comic by Schillar

BREAKING: UNRWA just fired 70 employees in Gaza over their ties to Hamas, in wake of UN Watch's latest revelations and the investigation by the U.S. Inspector General of USAID. See our new UNRWA Terror Network map here, identifying 400 culprits: unwatch.org/unrwa-terror-net…

This is Deniz, the 16-year-old horse that collapsed and died in New York's Central Park this week. @NYCMayor Mamdani, ban these horse-drawn carriages now. The whole world is watching. Other cities will follow your lead.

@Marikacobbold @Bobosvensk

The United Nations and Hamas: A Toxic Relationship? A close friend of mine from Gaza City, tortured nearly to death by Hamas, a well‑known activist against the group, and someone I helped evacuate during the war, was featured in the UN Human Rights Council’s report documenting Hamas’s abuses against Palestinian civilians: executions, torture, beatings, the misuse of medical facilities, and the terrorizing of women and children. When he met with the UN investigation team, one investigator was openly sympathetic to Hamas and the “resistance” narrative, signaling from the start that she doubted his testimony. He then spent five hours convincing the rest of the team that Hamas had, in fact, tortured him, despite extensive evidence of his injuries circulating on social media and a medical examination confirming blunt‑force trauma consistent with organized abuse, not random violence or Israeli bombardment. He even had to walk the investigators, including Ms. pro‑Hamas, through how his case fits into hundreds of others across Gaza, and how Hamas itself has filmed and publicly released its own executions, beatings, and torture to terrorize the population. Imagine that: Hamas documenting its own crimes on video, and supposedly serious investigators refusing to believe what is right in front of them. Imagine a human rights inquiry that includes someone openly aligned with the very group under investigation. It forces a hard question: why are parts of the UN system so compromised when it comes to Hamas that they cannot think beyond Israel’s actions long enough to examine the crimes of Palestinian actors, crimes that are equally harmful, shameful, and deserving of condemnation? And why are some so eager to believe Palestinians when the accusation is against Israel, yet so reluctant when the accusation is against Hamas, even when the evidence is overwhelming?