“The dilemma today is that neither of the two main solutions to the conflict – the creation of two states for Jews and Palestinians or of a single, secular democratic state for both – is viable. No sanction will alter that.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Britain is morally right to sanction Israel – but it won’...

Ed Miliband’s measures against illegal settlements are a necessary gesture, even if they are predicated on a solution that is unviable

observer.co.uk

This piece completely gets what we were trying to do with the report; not locate the distress young people are experiencing with them, or in their own heads, but in the conditions they have found themselves in. In the policy choices made by adults. In the material conditions of growing up today.

Kenan Malik@kenanmalik.bsky.social · last wk.

“Too much contemporary discussion of the impact of technology on the young fetishises the psychology at the expense of wider social realities.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

“Too much contemporary discussion of the impact of technology on the young fetishises the psychology at the expense of wider social realities.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

One in 20 young people have no close friends – and we can...

It’s not just lives lived digitally driving loneliness and isolation; it’s a lack of libraries, youth clubs and jobs

observer.co.uk

“Israeli policy is directed toward making life unbearable for Palestinians wherever they live, so that their emigration can be described as an act of free will.” Amira Hass in @haaretzcom: www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026...

Otherwise Occupied • Israel isn't debating a Palestinian state. It's preparing for expulsion

Gadi Eisenkot's position on Palestinian statehood is beside the point. Across Gaza, the West Bank and Israel itself, the machinery for making Palestinian life impossible is already operating, laying t...

haaretz.com

“This level of criminality shows that water companies do not believe they [the regulator], or the government, will ever do anything meaningful to stop them.” www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Dry weather sewage discharges soar as water companies face scrutiny

Exclusive: 7,280 suspected illegal spills in rivers and sea recorded in first five months of 2026

theguardian.com

“What kind of a society… is unable to provide its citizens with the most basic of needs such as housing,? And what kind of a society scapegoats marginalised groups to camouflage that failure?” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Scapegoating foreigners won’t fix the social housing cris...

Stirring up fury about immigrants’ access to homes fails to tackle the real problem – and raises disturbing questions about what citizenship means

observer.co.uk

Ironically, sickle cell anaemia is a good example of the problems of reducing issues to racial categories. Because African Americans and Britons of Caribbean origin suffer disproportionately from the trait… 1/

“A story of how those with power possess the authority to avoid accountability while those without power lack the leverage to make the unaccountable accountable.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Grenfell Tower report shows what’s good for business is o...

US cladding company at the heart of the tragic inferno paid shareholders almost twice as many millions as it did survivors and bereaved relatives

observer.co.uk

“There is also now uncertainty over the status of the long-standing principle that a jury may act according to their conscience, and how that may be used in a defence speech.” Interview with barrister Rajiv Menon on a disturbing use of contempt of court: observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

‘A chilling effect’: Palestine Action barrister speaks ou...

Facing prosecution for a closing speech, Rajiv Menon KC denies asking the jury to act on their consciences, and recalls how the case led him to miss a visit to his dying father

observer.co.uk

“A story of how those with power possess the authority to avoid accountability while those without power lack the leverage to make the unaccountable accountable.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Grenfell Tower report shows what’s good for business is o...

US cladding company at the heart of the tragic inferno paid shareholders almost twice as many millions as it did survivors and bereaved relatives

observer.co.uk

“The retreat to the small, and the jettisoning of grand metanarratives of the kind that Hobsbawm excelled at, has reduced our understanding of who we are.” @johnmerrick.bsky.social on @emile-chabal.bsky.social’s biography of Eric Hobsbawm: unherd.com/2026/08/eric...

Eric Hobsbawm's age of contradictions

unherd.com

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Grunwick dispute, one of the most important strikes of the postwar years www.striking-women.org/module/strik... phm.org.uk/blogposts/ja... www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-... workingclasshistory.com/podcast/grun...

Grenfell Tower cladding firm Arconic paid almost twice as much compensation to its shareholders for economic loss from misleading statements about the cladding than to the estates of the victims and to survivors of the fire: Report from @cmmonwealth.bsky.social: www.common-wealth.org/publications...

Unpunished and Undeterred: Corporate Accountability After Grenfell

Legal frameworks governing corporate malpractice are not fit for purpose.

common-wealth.org

Transportation, 21st century style. And not just transported, but transported to a foreign prison from which they may never be released. Extraordinary how quickly this has become normalised. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/m...

He Was Deported to a Country He’d Never Heard Of. He May Never Go Free.

As the Trump administration sends a growing number of immigrants to countries they have no connection to, some find themselves imprisoned with no way out.

nytimes.com

“The way that political issues have become reframed as matters of security, to create ‘a world in which fellow civilians are the principal threat, and where military and surveillance technologies are deployed to “fight’ them’.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

From CCTV to digital data, states are policing problems t...

The migrant breach in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta reveals how increased securitisation by governments inevitably leads to a paranoia ‘doom loop’

observer.co.uk

“As trust has eroded, so security has become a kind of social glue.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

From CCTV to digital data, states are policing problems t...

The migrant breach in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta reveals how increased securitisation by governments inevitably leads to a paranoia ‘doom loop’

observer.co.uk

This is tragic and terrible. It is, I wrote, a story from which few emerge looking clean. And that is still the case, including with much of the discussion over the last few hours. RIP x.com/BBCNews/stat...

BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) on X

Ex-Cambridge professor at centre of plagiarism row found dead https://t.co/TAJLaIvQtv

x.com

“Our client is not averse to criticism, nor does he wish to stifle the legitimate voicing of opinions of those who may disagree with his work.” “We await your confirmation that no article will be published.”

Dan Neidle@danneidle.bsky.social · last mo.

Why was the Jason Arday story broken by a racist blogger and not the mainstream press? Because Times Higher Education was intimidated off the story by a letter from notorious libel firm Carter-Ruck. I'm publishing the letter. Its central claim may be false.

An important bookshop, especially in an area with too few bookshops. Do support.

A case apparently not just of plagiarism but also of the catastrophic use of AI to try to disguise it.

Sholto David@sholtodavid.bsky.social · last mo.

A tool used to rephrase plagiarised text changed "final solution" to "mass killing of an ethnic group" in a chemistry paper. Now retracted thanks to a PubPeer user who spotted this. pubpeer.com/publications...

“It is a story from which few emerge looking clean.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

The racism black academics face isn’t helped by leaping t...

Accusations of plagiarism against the black scholar have given rightwingers a chance to vent their fury – but downplaying the allegations plays into their hands

observer.co.uk

“It is a story from which few emerge looking clean.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

The racism black academics face isn’t helped by leaping t...

Accusations of plagiarism against the black scholar have given rightwingers a chance to vent their fury – but downplaying the allegations plays into their hands

observer.co.uk

Quite a tweet from the head of Jordan's FA x.com/AliBinAlHuss...

Ali Al Hussein (@AliBinAlHussein) on X

There is no shortage of issues regarding FIFA. Let me start by clarifying what some of these are from an FA perspective, in particular that of Jordan going into a World Cup for the first time. We are...

x.com

“Sam Altman… said we’d ultimately be happier if we keep our heads down and keep grinding.” “Somehow we never get the promise of the four-hour work week at mass scale in society... And I don’t expect AI to change that.” futurism.com/artificial-i...?

Sam Altman Says Even the Power of AI Will Never Lead to a Shorter Work Week

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has some bad news: AI will never lead to a shorter work week — despite having already ushered in the singularity.

futurism.com

“Ceuta’s border is so thoroughly militarised that it puts even Trump’s barrier-building – let alone that of Greece, Poland or Finland – to shame. The paradox… was that this militarisation had involved ceding control”: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The right’s exploitation of the Ceuta migrant ‘crisis’ almost guarantees that it will happen again | Ruben Andersson

The EU’s panic and the lack of solidarity emboldens smugglers and the far right – and makes Spain even more vulnerable, says Ruben Andersson, professor of social anthropology

theguardian.com

“What should not be acceptable is for leftwing parties to blunt their principles or to diminish hostility to one form of bigotry in the name of confronting another.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

In its refusal to confront Islamist bigotry, the left has...

The right seized on the ethnicity of the Berlin Pride attacker to demonise Muslims, but liberals have been hamstrung for fear of appearing illiberal

observer.co.uk

Not been on social media for a while, so a bit slow on the Jason Arday debate. Seems to me the key line is Arday’s response to @theguardian.com questioning one of his claims: “To be honest with you, I thought you’d just believe me”. This is as much about the culture and the institutions… 1/

“What should not be acceptable is for leftwing parties to blunt their principles or to diminish hostility to one form of bigotry in the name of confronting another.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

In its refusal to confront Islamist bigotry, the left has...

The right seized on the ethnicity of the Berlin Pride attacker to demonise Muslims, but liberals have been hamstrung for fear of appearing illiberal

observer.co.uk

“Foreignness is being asked to do more than describe legal status. Legal status may affect legal consequences. But why should it alter the moral weight of the act?” Anye-Nkwenti Nyamnjoh in @africasacountry.bsky.social africasacountry.com/2026/06/the-...

The right to belong imperfectly

In South Africa, one of xenophobia’s quieter moral mechanisms is the way foreign wrongdoing is made to carry more meaning than citizen wrongdoing.

africasacountry.com

Being obnoxious, even hoping that someone had died painfully, is not, or should not be, a crime www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Aberdeen University worker charged over Ann Widdecombe death comments

Police Scotland had initially said there was no criminality but have now confirmed a 50-year-old has been arrested and charged.

bbc.co.uk