News and Views 29th August 2025 

Israel and the Middle East

• Jordan school textbooks justify Hamas massacre. An investigation into Jordan’s school curriculum has uncovered textbooks for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years that legitimise Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, celebrate jihad, demonise Jews, and advocate the ethnic cleansing of Israelis, all while omitting any mention of the Holocaust. Material in many of these books portrays Israel “as an illegitimate, expansionist enemy,” justifying its erasure from maps. Meanwhile, interestingly, the textbooks demonstrate respect for Christians and present factual information about Christianity, while calling for Christian-Muslim harmony. Yet they continue to disseminate anti-Jewish narratives.
• Multiple images of Gazan starvation not what they seem. PT reported previously on misleading photos of an emaciated 18-month-old boy in Gaza, which were published by top media outlets worldwide, ‘proving’ there was widespread hunger in Gaza and – stirring worldwide anger against Israel. In actual fact, the boy wasn’t simply suffering from malnutrition; he had pre-existing health issues “affecting his brain and his muscle development.” It transpires that this incident wasn’t just a one-off. An investigation by The Free Press reveals that at least a dozen other images of starvation in Gaza that were widely picked up on by mainstream media also lacked important context: the subjects of those photos have significant health problems. The Free Press provides specific details on each of these individuals. Uncovering this missing context didn’t require in-depth, on-the-ground reporting - or months of investigative work. Rather, it took The Free Press minutes, and required nothing more than a computer with a stable internet connection.
• Hunger is real but no evidence of widespread 'famine'. The Free Press did note, however, that real hunger undoubtedly exists in Gaza - and suffering on a mammoth scale.  An Israeli publication claimed to have found at least 17 cases of children who had deteriorated into a state of severe malnutrition without pre-existing health conditions, stating that the medical ailments they encountered in many other cases "were a result of the catastrophic living conditions in the Strip during the last 22 months, or they had become aggravated acutely because of hunger." While that report showed many photos of emaciated children (who, with less fat reserves to draw on, are the first to become malnourished), it showed none of seriously malnourished adults, admitting that it knew of only "a few" such cases. There remains, to date, no evidence of widespread famine or starvation across Gaza. Read also this article.

Society and Politics

• Kids as young as 4 are being reported for racism. The number of children being sent home from school due to racist behaviour has soared to record levels, particularly since Covid lockdowns. Last year, some 2,500 primary school children in England were either reported or suspended from school for racist behaviour, including several aged between four and five. Such children of tender years have been reported for exchanges involving describing classmates’ hair as ‘different’, or for using the word ‘chocolate’ when asked to describe a classmate’s skin colour. Most teachers and campaigners are well aware that four-year old children would not understand that their language was racist. One education expert said that staff log racist incidents as a way of ‘covering their backs’ and ‘feel nervous’ if they don’t. Read also here and here.
• Council offers ‘support’ to staff ‘unsettled’ by Union Jack flags. Essex County Council’s ‘Children & Families Senior Leadership Team’ sent an email to staff on Thursday saying it was “aware of the increasing visibility of St George’s and Union Jack flags displayed on road signs, bridges, and trees in parts of Essex”. The directive continued, “we recognise that for many – particularly our colleagues of colour – they can evoke feelings of discomfort and be associated with anti-immigration rhetoric.” Staff were encouraged to “reach out” to their manager for support if they felt “unsettled or affected” by what they were seeing. Meanwhile, asylum seekers’ rights are more important than the concerns of the people of the Essex town of Epping, the Home Office has declared.

Church Issues

• Horrific rise in anti-Christian attacks across Europe. Attacks against both Christians in Europe and against Christian sites have seen a significant rise in recent years. The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC) documented 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes in 2023 across 35 countries. Nearly 1,000 of those occurred in France, about 700 in Britain, and more than 270 in Germany, the cases of which more than doubled. France is at the centre of the disturbing trend, with a 30% increase in arson attacks on churches in 2024, nearly 50 incidents in a single year. But the report finds the UK one of the most hostile countries toward Christians in Europe.
• “The space for Christians in Europe is shrinking”. In Spain, a Catholic altar server was murdered in Algeciras by an Islamist extremist — an incident highlighted in OIDAC’s 2024 report. In Britain, a convert to Christianity from Islam narrowly survived an attempted murder, while in Poland, a Christian procession was deliberately targeted in a car-ramming attack. “The space for Christians in Europe is shrinking,” noted the executive director of OIDAC, with Christians across Europe increasingly self-censoring and feeling unsafe expressing their faith publicly. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has linked anti-Christian sentiments at least in part to massive migration from mainly Muslim nations, warning that Europe’s Judeo-Christian roots are threatened.
• Thousands march for Jesus in Belfast. At least 5,000 people (some estimates claim 7-8,000) took to the streets of Belfast to participate in the annual March for Jesus last Saturday. Participants came from as far away as Kerry, Galway and Dublin, but mainly from all corners of Northern Ireland. Event organiser Pastor Ahern said he was delighted to see “so many people from so many backgrounds and people from North and South just coming together to honour Jesus Christ.” At one point the thousands of worshippers were directed to raise their hands towards Stormont and pray for the country's politicians. Critics had accused the parade of not being ecumenical since it had not been organised in partnership with the Catholic church. But Ahern made clear that all Catholics were very welcome to take part, and many did. The Police reported no problems as a result of the march. Watch here.

Climate Change

• "Record-Breaking Cold" For US states in August. Mainstream media has been keen to propagate the Met Office’s alarmist statistics showing that the summer of 2025 has been the warmest summer on record for the UK, with 4 heatwaves so far – proving the reality of climate change. In fact, none of the heatwaves forced the UK highest maximum temperature of the year to particularly high levels. Meanwhile, though little-reported in the UK, great chunks of America have seen record low temperatures this August, with temperatures dropping as far as 30 degrees below average for several states this past week. See here, here and here. Read also.
• Met Office is inventing temperature data, claims Daily Sceptic. The UK Met Office has over 100 non-existent weather stations where it estimates temperature data using information from “well-correlated neighbouring sites”. However, it refuses to identify any of the sites used and bats away Freedom of Information requests with the excuse that they are “vexatious” and not in the public interest. The Daily Sceptic has been investigating these ‘hidden’ weather stations for months (read here, here and here), and has now revealed that in the case of the fictitious site at Lowestoft, there are no open weather stations for miles around. They claim, sensationally, that unless the Met Office can finally reveal its workings out, the only realistic conclusion to draw is that the data are invented. It is, they say, the ‘smoking gun’ that demands a full public explanation. Read also here and here.

Lucy Letby Case

• Mounting evidence against Lucy Letby’s conviction. As questions continue over the validity of nurse Lucy Letby’s conviction, additional evidence continues to emerge. A TV psychologist and crime expert recently stated that she’s studied psychopaths for 25 years and insists that Letby’s notes about killing babies could be proof of her innocence. It has also been sensationally revealed that Letby repeatedly raised the alarm over doctors' blunders in the baby unit in the hospital where she worked, raising concerns that it may have been ‘revenge’ attacks that led to her conviction. Further, there are concerns that the medical world was ‘terrified’ to speak out over the Letby case, even though they were convinced she had done no wrong. In addition, although Letby was found guilty of poisoning several babies with insulin, a new report questions whether extra insulin was ever given to the babies at all.
• Additional info on the Letby case. Recently, the BBC was forced to correct and re-edit a Panorama programme on Letby after being accused of 'sloppy and amateurish' journalism and producing 'false statistics'. Letby’s closest friends have always spoken in Lucy’s defence, and continue to do so. Dr Scott McLachlan’s series of articles on the Letby case is considered the most comprehensive catalogue of the case anywhere (he was recently sacked from his position as lecturer in the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care at King’s College London). And just this week, Peter Hitchens has made the sensational claim that the Lucy Letby case has become so sensitive that the public is about to be banned from talking about it at all. Read also here and here.

Antisemitism

     
    Instances of antisemitism or overt anti-Israel expression appear to be becoming more extreme as well as more widespread. The following cases have been reported in the past week alone:
   
    UK:

• Posters accusing Israel of “starving and killing Palestinians in Gaza” and including the phrase “Zionism is Poison” were placed on walls of the University College London Hospital, part of the NHS trust. The NHS has since apologised for the incident.
• Police in Bournemouth are investigating two reported hate crimes after antisemitic graffiti was spraypainted across four buildings and a teenager was shot in the head with an air rifle last weekend, amid a rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the town.
• An essay on a UK government website tells Jews to tolerate anti-Zionist views.
• During Britain’s Wheelchair Basketball Nations Cup match against Israel, Britain’s team turned their backs so they were facing away from the Israeli flag as it was raised during the playing of the Jewish state’s national anthem.
• The Co-op has unveiled plans to stock Palestinian beer in its stores just weeks after banning produce from Israel.

   Worldwide:

• An Israeli tourist hospitalised by guests at a Centre Parcs in the Netherlands was 'beaten unconscious' by a family who shouted 'kill the Jews' and 'we will get to your children' during a paintball game. 
• The suspect in Wednesday’s mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, posted videos that included antisemitic and anti-Israel messages, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
• It has been revealed that the author of a controversial report determining that a famine has taken hold in parts of Gaza has a history of anti-Israel and pro-Iran rhetoric.
• Cars belonging to British Jewish tourists were spray-painted with the words “Free Palestine” while parked in the French Alps. The attacker has been sentenced to 8 months in jail.
• Masked attackers sprayed red paint at Jewish people commemorating Hamas hostages in a park in the German city of Frankfurt.
• France summoned their American ambassador after he wrote a letter to French President Macron alleging France had failed to do enough to stem antisemitic violence.
• The oldest synagogue in the Chilean capital has been vandalised with anti-Israel graffiti.
• A New York City attorney called for Israelis to be killed by firing squads in an online post. He has been dismissed from his job after pro-Israel advocates flagged the comments to his employer.