Oliver Brown in the Telegraph:

Lisa Nandy should surely have taken the hint when, having worn a “protect the dolls” T-shirt on a transgender rights march in August, she found herself roundly eviscerated.

Dolls, a slang term from the 1980s for men trying to pass themselves off as women, had long been viewed as misogynistic, a description that succeeded only in objectifying femininity. Except now the Culture Secretary has gone a step further, making the fatuous suggestion at this week’s Labour Party conference that biological men should still be allowed to compete in certain women’s sports.

“There are three things that we’re trying to achieve,” she said on Wednesday. “The first is inclusion, the second is fairness, and

Farewell to Jane Goodall.

The United Nations said it mourned the loss of Dr Goodall, saying that she “worked tirelessly for our planet and all its inhabitants, leaving an extraordinary legacy for humanity and nature”.

Greenpeace said it was “heartbroken” by her death, calling her “one of the true conservation giants of our time”.

Its co-executive director in the UK, Will McCallum, said: “Dr Goodall’s legacy is not only in science but in the global movement she helped spark to protect nature and give hope for a better world.”

Naturalist Chris Packham told the BBC that he counted her among his heroes, calling her “revolutionary” and “remarkable”.

“To have lost a hero at a time when we need all

Labour shows off its hostility to women yet again.

The new trans rules are “not right” and should be reviewed by MPs, one of Labour’s deputy leadership candidates has said.

Lucy Powell appeared to criticise the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance on transgender issues, which has advised that workplaces provide protected single-sex spaces.

So she thinks workplaces should not provide protected single-sex spaces? She thinks women should have to deal with men in women’s spaces?

Speaking at a fringe event of the party conference on Monday evening, Ms Powell was asked whether she supported the EHRC’s interim guidance on trans issues, which was issue after a ruling by the Supreme Court in April.

The guidance suggested

I hadn’t realized that Trump yammered at the trapped military brass yesterday for AN HOUR AND THIRTEEN MINUTES. Freestyle. Typical Trump brainless babbling, no script, just the endless spool of stupid soundbites and boasts and lies and gibberish.

Shawn McCreesh at the Times has some details.

Several hundred military commanders turned up at Quantico on Tuesday morning. Some had flown in for it from places as far away as Germany, Brussels, Japan and South Korea. They sat mostly in silence as Mr. Trump talked for 73 minutes about the same things he talks about almost every day, no matter where he is or to whom he is speaking.

He talked to the generals about Joseph R. Biden Jr. and

Could have been an email.

Pete Hegseth’s speech to top generals was supposed to serve as a rallying cry for military exceptionalism — but it didn’t land that way with many of the people it was targeting.

Numerous defense officials — who watched senior brass scramble to Washington and then sit through a partisan speech from President Donald Trump and a return to old-school military standards by Hegseth — were left wondering why the event had occurred at all.

“More like a press conference than briefing the generals,” said one defense official, who, like others, was granted anonymity due to fears of retribution. “Could have been an email.”

Defense officials, in the Pentagon and at bases around the world,

Awww, Owen Jones has been told to go away.

Much of Labour conference has seen MPs taking aim at Nigel Farage and his Reform party, but it would appear some left-wingers have ended up in the firing line too. Onetime Labour member and all-time general annoyance Owen Jones had been running around Liverpool vox-popping politicians and delegates with his cameraman – but he managed to get on the wrong side of the party and was rather embarrassingly informed today that his conference pass had been, er, cancelled. Yikes!

They told him it was a safeguarding issue.

After careful consideration, we’ve concluded that we cannot continue your attendance while ensuring we meet our safeguarding obligations to all attendees.

I think … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Of dust and boots.

There is a teeny-tiny pebble of a good idea under all that rubble.

Obviously, I agree that this whole thing is preposterous. But there’s at least something to be said about military dress and discipline standards slipping. I looked into this because the military is probably the most common career among crossdressing men, and the campaign to end the “trans in the military ban” represents the moment around the mid-oughts that liberal allies of gays, sensing the gay rights war was winding down to a victorious close, began shifting their focus over to transgender “rights”. They wanted to keep the momentum going, to keep their activist juices flowing.

The … Read the rest

Great headline.

A Novice Defense Secretary Lectures the Brass on What It Takes to Win

Subhead:

Senior officers, summoned from around the world, are entrusted to manage complex military operations. They got a lecture on fitness and grooming standards.

From the tv guy.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has long maintained that the U.S. military badly needed a leader with dust on his boots to shake up a force that has gone soft and “woke.”

On Tuesday, he faced a room of hundreds of generals and admirals, whom he had summoned from across the globe, and made the case that he was that leader.

Because yeah, there’s nothing like a tv talking head for leading experienced military officers into a better … Read the rest

So we’re the enemy within now.

Trump defended the use of U.S. troops in American cities and told top U.S. commanders that the military would be used against the “enemy within.”

“This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control,” Trump told those gathered for the highly unusual event at Quantico, Va. “It won’t get out of control once you’re involved at all.”

Trump said he told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the U.S. “should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” a reference to the Democratic-run cities that he has

Trump admitted it’s a tad pricey.

Trump said there was an expense to meet with top admirals and generals in Quantico today when departing the White House this morning.

“There’s a little bit of expense, not much, but there’s a little expense to that. We don’t like to waste it. We’d rather spend it on bullets and rockets, frankly,” Trump said when departing the White House.

No, not a little. Not not much. There’s a lot of expense to “that”. It’s utterly pointless expense, too, since it’s just saying stuff. There are quick cheap easy ways of saying things these days, so there’s no need to drag everyone into the Real Presence.

The brass is aware of this.

The

Suzanne Moore wipes the Telegraph floor with Emma Watson.

Without JK Rowling, I doubt any of us would have heard of Emma Watson. If Rowling and her franchise hadn’t been such a behemoth, it would be also tough to care about the confused views of a 30-something former child star.

Without JK Rowling, Emma Watson, who played Hermione Grainger in the Harry Potter film series, would not be worth an estimated $85 million (£63 million) or still be considered worth interviewing, even though she has not acted since 2019.

It’s all but certain that without JKR Watson would be nowhere. Would she have landed a part in some other movie that made as much money and had as many … Read the rest

JKR lets rip.

I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points.

I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should… https://t.co/c0pz19P7jc

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 29, 2025

I’m seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points.

I’m not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I

He’d better idennify as a trans woman pretty fast.

Retired US financier Howard Rubin was arrested Friday on sex-trafficking charges for allegedly trafficking dozens of women, including former Playboy models, to be sexually and physically assaulted during encounters in his New York City penthouse in a soundproofed room described in court papers as “The Dungeon”.

Authorities announced the arrest of Rubin and his former personal assistant, Jennifer Powers, on charges in an indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court.

…

Prosecutors said Rubin and Powers abused the women between 2009 and 2019 after recruiting them to fly to New York to engage in sex acts with Rubin in exchange for money.

They said Rubin and Powers targeted women who were

Trump has declared war on Portland; the invasion begins tomorrow.

Oregon’s Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced Sunday that the state has filed a lawsuit to block President Donald Trump from deploying the National Guard to Portland, a day after Trump authorized federal troops to protect what he dubbed “War ravaged Portland.”

He received notice from the governor’s office at 9:32 a.m. Sunday that the U.S. Department of Defense had sent an email revealing that Trump had invoked a section of federal law to call 200 members of the Oregon National Guard into federal service in the city for 60 days, under the U.S. Northern Command.

Rayfield, appearing with Kotek and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson during a virtual news

The new William the Conqueror.

Trump: “Some of the highest quality 24 Karat Gold used in the Oval Office and Cabinet Room of the White House. Foreign Leaders, and everyone else, “freak out” when they see the quality and beauty. Best Oval Office ever, in terms of success and look!!! President DJT” pic.twitter.com/EEy08gwrWw

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 28, 2025

… Read the rest

Because we need it – something nice for a change.

The view from my kitchen window… in a sheltered spot, a dish of clean water, and always a number of different birds coming down to drink and bathe – such a good way to start the day, every day! pic.twitter.com/tTdjEzLwtv

— Charles Cuthbert (@CRCuthbert) September 27, 2025

… Read the rest

Of course he has.

Trump has decided he’s going to the last-minute global gathering of the nation’s top generals in Quantico, Virginia, that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered last week.

It’s getting all this press attention, so of course he’s not going to let Hegseth hog the camera.

Trump’s appearance not only upstages Hegseth’s plans but adds new security concerns to the massive and nearly unprecedented military event.

But it’s the upstaging that’s the funniest.

Notice went out to offices around the Pentagon that the decision will “significantly change the security posture” of the speech, set for Tuesday morning.

Yeh, all that brass and the Secretary of Defense are expendable but the prezzy has to have all the bells … Read the rest

David Lammy continues to ignore women.

David Lammy has been accused of ignoring women’s rights as he comes under pressure to remove transgender prisoners from a female jail.

The newly appointed Justice Secretary – an outspoken supporter of trans rights whose recent comments to concerned voters can be revealed today – has been urged to shut down a special unit inside HMP Downview in light of the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex.

He has been told by the local MP that E Wing, which currently houses five biological males who have legally changed sex, represents a ‘clear breach’ of the provisions for single-sex spaces in the Equality Act.

What the Daily Mail for some reason fails to make … Read the rest

Dirty dirty dirty.

The FBI has fired agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, three people familiar with the matter said Friday.

The bureau last spring had reassigned the agents but has since fired them, said the people, who insisted on anonymity to discuss personnel matters with The Associated Press.

The number of FBI employees terminated was not immediately clear, but two people said it was roughly 20.

So FBI agents should not object to the use of excessive force in arrests? They should support lethal violence from law enforcement? Is that really a good idea in the … Read the rest

Trump is firing people for upholding the law.

Donald Trump fired a top federal prosecutor in Sacramento just hours after she warned immigration agents they could not indiscriminately detain people in her district, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times.

Because, of course, Trump wants to detain people indiscriminately.

Beckwith had received a phone call from Gregory Bovino, who leads the Border Patrol’s unit in El Centro, a border city 600 miles south of Sacramento. Bovino was planning an immigration raid in Sacramento and asked Beckwith who in her office to contact if his officers were assaulted, the Times reported, citing Beckwith.

600 miles is a lot of miles. One has to wonder why a Border … Read the rest