Old Codger

@alexmassie Mischievous.

No reason why Andy Burnham can’t be the Labour candidate in the forthcoming Aberdeen South by-election. Courage, comrades!

@AJEnglish Nasty people.

Israel's military launches a probe after photo shows soldier placing a cigarette into the mouth of Virgin Mary statue. aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/7/…

@thgreenparty @UKLabour Undecided whether I should vote Labour or Green in Trafford. Keen to support Mancunian local government but also keen to support Green. Shenanigans like Labour media attacks make it hard to support them.

@AJEnglish Shameful by Israel

An Israeli court has extended the detention of two foreign activists from the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla until Sunday, a rights group representing the men says, as authorities continue to question them. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.news/glz7p2

@novaramedia Barbaric

Israeli soldiers beat and tortured flotilla organisers Saif Abukeshek and Thiago Ávila after abducting them in international waters near Greece in the early hours of Thursday morning, lawyers and diplomats have said. After illegally intercepting 22 boats and kidnapping around 200 activists hundreds of miles from Gaza, Israel transferred the majority to Greek authorities, but refused to release Abukeshek and Ávila. Instead, it transported them back to an Israeli desert prison, where Palestinians are routinely tortured. Brazilian activist Ávila was dragged face-down across the floor and beaten so badly he passed out twice, lawyers said, after visiting him on Saturday. His wife, Lara Souza, said an embassy official told her he had been temporarily blinded by his injuries, with his left eye still swollen shut, but he was being denied medical treatment. In a brief visit, where he was separated from the consul by a glass screen and not able to speak freely, he reported pain all over his body, especially in his hand and shoulder, and said that soldiers had threatened to throw him overboard and target his wife and two-year-old daughter. Abukeshek, who had been sailing on an observer boat and did not intend to go to Gaza, was “in shock”, his wife Sally Issa said. He was forced to lie face-down on the floor of an Israeli warship for two days, lawyers said, blindfolded and with his hands bound behind his back. Spain has demanded Israel release Abukeshek, who is Palestinian but holds Spanish and Swedish citizenship. On Friday, prime minister Pedro Sánchez said he had been "illegally abducted by the Netanyahu government". On Sunday, the activists appeared before an Israeli court, where a judge extended their detention by two days. Lawyers demanded their immediate and unconditional release, telling the court the entire process was "fundamentally flawed and illegal", and describing Israel's actions as a "retaliatory measure against humanitarian activist leaders". The two men have now been transferred back to solitary confinement in Shikma prison, where they are being held in windowless cells. Both are on hunger strike, with Ávila saying he will not leave without Abukeshek.

@afneil I'm puzzled as to why you don't have an opinion on Brexit. You're not normally short of opinions.

I have never claimed that Brexit has increased our GDP. I do not rule out that it might well have been a drag. I have never argued one way or the other. But this is really the economics of the kindergarten.

@DannyMMorris Very sorry to read that.

A sign of the times, quite literally. As spotted on a kosher food shop in London.

@DAaronovitch I think your comment is a bit unfair. I believe there is a word for a self hating jew but there's no reason to think Polanski is one

This line repeated - "I am the only Jewish political leader of a major political party" - at this moment both sounds and is exploitative. Be judged for what you do, not what you were born

@BethRigby @SkyNews Why don't they concentrate on governing well and sop playing political games?

EXCL: Starmer’s top team split over whether to press ahead with a cabinet reshuffle after the May elections in the wake of the Peter Mandelson crisis. More below, on @skynews after #PMQs & on Electoral Dysfunction this week news.sky.com/story/politics…

@AJENews Diddums

BREAKING: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine has been intensifying attacks on civilian infrastructure inside Russia, Reuters reports.

@Marikacobbold I'm really sorry that you feel scared. No one should have to worry in our Community

@OldCodger3 I can only hope that you're right, because it feels pretty scary out there right now.

So, the responses to this make it very clear that there are plenty of people who think the fire-bombing of synagogues in London is no big deal because, you know, the Israeli government is awful. Noted.

@Marikacobbold @alexmassie Yes the comments are awful but they're not a representative same of opinion.

@OldCodger3 @alexmassie The evidence is in the comments on Alex's original post and on Hadley's original one.

@dignityindying They're a disgrace.

Lord Barber stresses that the House of Lords has “abjectly failed in our responsibilities as a scrutinising and revising chamber” as it fails to reach a vote on the assisted dying Bill today.

@MarioNawfal It would be helpful if independent journalists could report in Gaza.

🇵🇸 Hamas members are trading rice and sugar for sex with the widows of their own fallen fighters. War widows. Single mothers. Women with no food and nowhere to go. When a Hamas employee reported finding a slain member's wife being exploited by multiple Qassam fighters in a tent, leadership told him to shut up and walk away. As one resident put it: "It's being done by all their employees and members, as though it's an organization set up for sexual harassment, psychological abuse and harassing young women." Source: NY Post

@OliverKamm Obviously we need more houses but that is a long term solution.

@OldCodger3 I wrote about this a long time ago with a then-topical example.

If you vote for this, you are supporting a reduction in the supply of private rental accommodation and the neglect of what remains. And as the Greens seek the abolition of landlords, that would appear to be the intention.

@DefraGovUK @EnvAgency Ha ha

Following tough action by the @EnvAgency, water companies have paid a record £8.5 million into projects to restore rivers, wildlife and habitats. This money will be reinvested directly where damage has occurred. Find out more: gov.uk/government/new…

@dignityindying @TheEconomist I keep reading that the bill is badly drafted but they do not say which bits are badly drafted.

.@TheEconomist is calling out the filibuster by a small number of opposed Peers who are stalling the assisted dying Bill, denying the House of Lords its final vote. We agree. It's time for Britain to "finally join other socially progressive countries and fulfil the will of its people." Act now 👇

🔴DON’T LOOK AWAY The Islamic regime is going to hang Saghar Gholami because she participated in the January protests. She’s only 19. This is pure barbarism. Share this before they kill her.