Quotes of the week: Russell Brand, Simon Heffer, Kellie Maloney

Russell Brand after interviewing Labour leader Ed Miliband:

I think we learnt about Labour, we learnt a lot about Ed Miliband. It's not a perfect interview but personally I found it a very interesting experience. And I think it says a lot about Ed Miliband that he understands the way the media works now, the way that the country feels at the moment, that he was prepared to come around here and talk to us.

From: Election 2015: Russell Brand grills Ed Miliband in Shoreditch showdown

Saudi comic Fahad Albutairi:

The show sketches do not get filtered out by any governmental bodies, nevertheless, we often get them checked by friends and people we trust. We are all Saudis, and we understand the society we live in, and we know what is right what is wrong.

From: Stand-up Saudi Arabia: YouTube sensation Fahad Al-Butairi breaking boundaries in the Islamic kingdom

Simon Heffer:

This does not mean populating our already overcrowded island with thousands of displaced Africans; it does mean not standing by while a humanitarian disaster happens because of the unfortunate attraction of our continent.

From: Dishonest UK foreign policy won't rescue drowning Mediterranean migrants

Nigerian migrant Walter Ojeme in Italy:

We sleep in overcrowded rooms, with up to six, eight people in a small room with no ventilation. Medically, you're not attended to. I've been complaining about chest pain and they just give me paracetamol.

From: Mediterranean migrants meet the Mafia at Sicily's Kafkaesque Mineo camp

IBTimes Columnist Christine Armstrong:

It makes me think of Caitlin Moran and what she might have become had she not been one of eight children in a small council house in Wolverhampton left to her own devices and the local library.

From: Gamechangers: Stop mollycoddling children and we'll have more fiery Caitlin Moran type adults

Transgender boxing promoter Kellie Maloney:

I've had some messages of my own, things like 'you're always going to be a man, just because you've had your genitals cut off doesn't make you a woman'. I just laughed, even when it got really abusive and personal. These people aren't even part of my life. You can delete them and you don't have to face them.

From: Kellie Maloney: Bruce Jenner must ignore Twitter trolls and complete the transgender journey

Artificial intelligence theorist Nick Bostrom:

You might say that if a computer starts sticking electrodes into people's faces, we'd just shut it off. This is not necessarily so easy to do if we've grown dependent on the system, like, where is the off switch to the internet? Why haven't the chimpanzees flicked the off switch to humanity? Or the neanderthals? They certainly had reasons. The reason is that we are an intelligent adversary. We can anticipate threats and plan around them. But so could a super intelligent agent and it would be much better at that than we are. The point is, we should not be confident that we have this under control.

From: AI expert Nick Bostrom: Machine super intelligence will have no off switch

Aids Free World co-director Paula Donovan:

The UN's instinctive response to sexual violence in its ranks – ignore, deny, cover up, dissemble – must be subjected to a truly independent commission of inquiry with total access, top to bottom, and full subpoena power."

From: UN senior official suspended for leaking internal report on child sexual abuse by French soldiers

IS-affiliated group Wilayat Sana'a:

We have come to Yemen, with men hungry for your blood to avenge the Sunnis and take back the land they have occupied.

From: Isis: Who is behind the Islamic State's latest franchise in war torn Yemen?