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Gillian Anderson responds to backlash after telling ‘distracting’ fans to stop sitting in front row

The actor, who is performing on the West End, was filmed telling theatre fans ‘you can’t come 20 times and sit in the front row, it’ll drive me mad’

Gillian Anderson has come under fire after the actor was filmed telling a group of fans that they were “distracting” her by repeatedly sitting in the front row while she performs in London’s West End.

The Sex Education and X-Files star was filmed outside the Soho Place theatre where she’s performing in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, telling a group of fans: “You guys cannot sit in the front row. I do not care; you cannot sit in the front row. It’s so distracting.”

2026-10-05 01:02:01

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government launches military drive to retake all Houthi-held territory

The announcement came hours after Iranian-backed Houthis reportedly cut a vital supply route to besieged city of Taiz

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government has announced the start of a new military operation to retake all territory held by the Houthis, even as the militant group made fresh gains on the ground, reportedly encircling a government-held city.

Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s presidential council, said in a statement on Sunday: “I announce today the start of military operations to retake the remaining territories of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory.”

2026-10-05 00:38:54

Brazil’s presidential race goes to second round as Flávio Bolsonaro leads incumbent Lula

Far-right challenger and son of disgraced ex-president Jair Bolsonaro will now face leftwing president in runoff vote

Brazil’s presidential race will go to a second round after the far-right candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, beat the incumbent leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but failed to secure the outright majority he needed to avoid a runoff.

With more than 99% of votes counted, the 45-year-old son of the disgraced former president, Jair Bolsonaro, had won 47.1%, meaning he will now face a 25 October showdown with his 80-year-old rival. Lula received 45%.

2026-10-05 00:16:52

MetaFilter

The past 24 hours of MetaFilter

Palestine: A Primer by Rashid Khalidi

The crumbling of the Zionist narrative has been completed by the world's first livestreamed genocide - "They have seen what they have been denied for generations: a true insight into exactly what Israel does when it's trying to do what settler-colonial projects do, which is replace one population with another population -- and steal their property. People have seen it. They're watching the West Bank. They cannot prevent people now from seeing what has been kept from them by a very sophisticated propaganda apparatus over many generations."

some timestamps to maybe help navigate (around KPFA fundraising spots):

[8:08] Cat Brooks' interview begins [12:07] On pre-Zionist Palestinian society [14:30] Palestine during WWI and WWII [26:40] The origins of Zionism [33:47] The Balfour Declaration [37:22] "British colonial policing was taught to the people who become the Israeli army and it's the Israeli army and police and border guards who are teaching many of our urban police in the United States. The colonial methods the British used all over the world are now being re-imported into the United States thanks to Israeli training of American police."* [42:00] Christian Zionism and Mike Huckabee [43:16] Declining King Abdullah's offer of Jordanian "protection" and the Nakba [46:21] Toward a free Palestine

a day in the life of Palestine... Israel murders journalist, bombs passenger van in Gaza - "Since the beginning of the so-called ceasefire in October 2025, Israel has killed more than 1,430 Palestinians, and injured more than 5,000, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. Israel's ongoing genocide has resulted in Gaza having the largest population of amputee children in modern history. Last year, the United Nations said that more than 10,000 children have had amputations, a figure that has no doubt climbed significantly since the fraudulent ceasefire was announced in October 2025." (Day 1091 | Is Israel truly isolated?)

Meanwhile, Israel continues to block medical supplies, medications, food, parts for infrastructure repair, toilet seats, hygiene necessities, adequate shelter materials and even wheelchairs from entering Gaza. The New Arab recently reported that more than 900 wheelchairs donated by two Australian charities made for wounded and amputee children in Gaza have been blocked by COGAT, the bureaucratic arm of the genocidal Israeli military, with the shipments stuck in Jordan since 2025. Mohammad Helmy, a Melbourne-based activist, told The New Arab that Israel's refusal to allow the wheelchairs into Gaza was intentional, accusing authorities of seeking to make life in the devastated enclave "impossible."

--- *also btw... Mac Muir on Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing - "The first American police department is formed in 1845. So you got the Emancipation Proclamation about 20 years later, and you have this blending of white supremacy, KKK, intersecting with all forms of government, and then you have in some specific cases, such as in Charleston, South Carolina, a direct lineage from slave catchers to the police department." [16:22]

2026-10-05 00:55:50