On Saturday, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid to protest against the country’s deepening housing crisis, the retired schoolteacher was among a small group who had sought to take the protest one step further.

“At first we were 10 tents,” she said, gesturing to the sprawling encampment set up in the central Puerta del Sol plaza behind her. “Now, we’re more than 300 tents, and it keeps growing.”

At the encampment earlier on Monday, many described the days of nationwide protests and the encampment as a turning point in a movement that had long simmered as rents rose by 80% within a decade, while the cost of homes climbed by 63%.

“People who want to have children should be able to do so, even if they are renting. People who dream of becoming musicians or barbers should have the chance to do so and not have to worry that they need to work, work, work to pay for housing,” he said. “It’s an endless loop that is undermining the mental health of young people.”

As he spoke, a large banner flapped nearby, reading: “You can speculate on watches, jewels, cryptobros and Ferraris. But not on our fucking homes.”

On Sunday, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said his government was “working around the clock to introduce a royal decree on housing on Tuesday”.

The protests have put the Socialist leader in a complicated spot; while his coalition government includes leftwing forces who have long pushed for change, Spain’s fractured parliament means his chances are slim of attracting support for measures that could bring about real change.

Brace for another administration of austerity and victim blaming rather than taxing the wealthy.

Surely, it's the people who are ill, poor and foreign who are to blame for the state of the country, and not the rich sucking up all the money.

As far as I can tell, this is just trying soften the blow and curtail the pushback these policies will inevitably face.

The time to cut funding, if ever, is when things are going great. That is the opposite of how things are now.

The motion, passed overwhelmingly at the party’s annual conference in Brighton, makes the Lib Dems the first of the big three parties in parliament to call for a new approach to implementing last year’s ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex only. The Greens have previously done so.

That's good. Labour is notably late here.

The Supreme Court ruling is wrong anyway. That said, it just means the Equality Act needs an amendment to make it less unclear that women includes trans women, but apparently no one has done that yet.

It's quite telling when someone, including supposed activist organization Stonewall, insists you should follow the law. Activism is all about not bending to unjust laws and rulings. Being publically gay was illegal until fairly recently in Britain. Did they just say "oh well, guess we can't be gay"? No. Of course not.

I'm posting this because I hadn't realized how far right the conservatives had gotten. They've been irrelevant for a couple of years now, and somehow they seem to have decided they need to go further right and become a borderline far-right party. No wonder they are irrelevant, when they alienate normal people, but don't go far enough to cater to the far right lunatics like Reform and Restore.

The former Tory activist resigned as chair of the One Nation Conservative Network and left his old party in July, arguing that centrists, remainers and members worried about the climate crisis and conservation were no longer welcome in the party. A week ago, he joined the Lib Dems.

“Moderates like me have been forced out of the big tent over the past few years,” he said. “My politics haven’t changed, but the party has.”

In July, the Tory leader warned that anyone who supported net zero targets or Britain’s membership of the European convention on human rights would be blocked from standing as a candidate in the next election.

On Sunday, Davey (Leader of the Lib Dems) explicitly ruled out any future pact with the Tories. But when asked about an arrangement with Labour, he said maximising the number of Lib Dem MPs would give his party a stronger hand in any future negotiations. “That means you have to box really smartly,” he said.

Chiltern Railways’ services became the latest to transition into public ownership on Sunday, marking the sixth train operator to be nationalised by the Government.

The UK’s largest train operator, Govia Thameslink Railway, alongside c2c, Greater Anglia, South Western Railway, and West Midlands Trains, have already been brought into public ownership by the Government.

From December, the Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed that 25 additional daily Chiltern Railways services will be introduced to help tackle "overcrowding", delivering 10,000 extra seats during each weekday. This plan incorporates half-hourly weekday trains running along the Chiltern main line between London and Birmingham, as well as an increase in weekend journeys.

"Unambiguously good thing is bad actually" - people who support unambiguously bad thing

Miki Zohar accuses Oscar-winning directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor of ‘treason against the state’

That's how you know a movie is good! I haven't watched it yet.

I thought this was already the case 🤷.

The “commonsense change” will take effect from Sunday 20 September

I share this only to share this brilliant quote:

Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, has said that Britain will be “on the wrong side of history” if it goes ahead with plans to ban trade with the illegal settlements on the West Bank.

A genocide inciter and collaborator telling you you are on the wrong side of history is really wild. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/04/isaac-herzog-israel-president-australia-visit-controversy-ntwnfb

In late 2023, Herzog was pictured signing an Israeli artillery shell being prepared to be dropped on Gaza, writing in Hebrew on the munition: “I rely on you.”

Last September, Herzog was named by the United Nations commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory as having incited genocide against the Palestine people in Israel’s prosecution of its war in Gaza.

“It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog said. “It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians who were not aware and not involved. It is absolutely not true.”

Invites a guy who he knows is planning an illegal donation

Has a long conversation with the guy confirming that he will take the illegal donation

Has Champagne and oysters to celebrate this donation.

"I didn't know what was happening. I wasn't listening. It wasn't me."

For anyone who still hasn't seen the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXut3s90rUI

Despite no one being hurt, he has spent the last two decades incarcerated without hope on a discredited Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail term – until now.

Their decision to give him back his freedom came weeks before prime minister Andy Burnham announced he would finally end the injustice of IPP jail terms before the end of this parliament.

It also came shortly before the United Nations (UN) issued a landmark legal opinion which declared his detention – and that of a number of other prisoners serving draconian IPP sentences – is arbitrary and unlawful. A major legal challenge over their imprisonment was this week lodged at the High Court.

He was originally told he must serve a minimum of two years and six months for the robbery, committed in December 2005. Despite remaining drug-free for many years in prison, he was repeatedly refused parole because of his disruptive behaviour as he grew frustrated over his treatment, which he characterised as “cripplingly cruel”.