JuneSim63

Retired researcher living in Nottinghamshire, England. Hull native.

Also at junesim63 (npub1zyj…ayxj)

#Socialist #Politics #Environment #Cats #Gardening #Wildlife #Opera #ClassicalMusic #Refugees #HumanRights
#AlcoholFree
#WearAMask
#ChildlessCatLady

She/Her

Avatar: Me, a white woman with short, greying brown hair. Wearing a large pair of red spectacles.

Header: Climate Stripes going from blue on the left to terrifying red on the right.

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npub1ecsvapql5rerese5hwtmkn74rfhk02s2ad6d3n22cphjpv8rs8zqm0kh2u

NIP-05 Address

junesim63_at_mstdn.social@momostr.pink

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nprofile1qqsvugxwss06pu3ucv6th9amfl235mm84g9wkaxce49vqmeqkr3cr3qavu3r9

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Published at

2024-09-01T11:13:01Z

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Last Notes

2024-10-20 06:52:52

"Once the finger is pointed at the individual, and unemployment and poverty become seen as moral rather than political issues, then coercion is rarely far away.
Unemployment is not a medical condition. Medical treatment should not be in the province of the DWP. Confusing the medical and the social makes it more difficult to improve lives in either sphere"
The excellent Kenan Malik on Streeting's proposal to pump the unemployed with drugs.
#Unemployment #UKPolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/20/pumping-the-unemployed-with-weight-loss-drugs-echoes-victorian-attitudes-to-the-poor

2024-10-13 14:25:06

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Everything IS happening at once.Time is just how we perceive events.

2024-10-12 10:37:51

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I did the same. I have never used British Gas since.

2024-10-11 10:29:11

"I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in #Lebanon...whether you like it or not, Hezbollah is an indigenous & multifaceted Lebanese political party & social movement. Netanyahu’s allegation that Hezbollah is merely an Iranian proxy that has taken over all of Lebanon should be seen for what it is: a ploy to stoke as much sectarian division in Lebanon as possible, and a brazen attempt to lead the country into yet another disastrous civil war"
Moustafa Bayoumi
#Israel
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/11/lebanon-israel-netanyahu

2024-10-11 07:07:23

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Hull has many famous sons and daughters, but I'm biased.

2024-10-01 10:43:03

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Of course. Don't most people?

2024-09-28 08:17:44

Good news..
Altyn Dala covers over 75 million hectares of #Kazakhstan, a vast area about the size of Turkey. The Altyn Dala initiative seeks to create and expand protected areas, restore threatened species’ populations, address illegal wildlife trade, and provide professional training and public education. It has saved the once critically endangered Taiga antelope & is now in the running for The Earthshot Prize. The UK's RSPB is one of its partners.
#RSPB #AltynDala
https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/earthshot-prize

2024-09-13 11:59:25

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Now do it with an amount pensioners can actually live on.

2024-09-13 11:46:24

The boards overseeing England’s national parks are bloated, dominated by white men and are severely lacking in diversity. Farmers outnumber conservation experts by two to one and nature is rarely on the agenda at board meetings.
Agenda items specifically related to nature appeared in only 7 of the last 30 meetings. Four park boards had no nature-related agenda items at all!
Why doesn't this surprise me?
#NationalParks #England #Conservation #Environment #UKPolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/13/bloated-boards-that-oversee-englands-national-parks-mostly-white-and-male

2024-09-12 08:08:08

"We need to start thinking about public transport not as a zero sum game but as an enabler. Rather than a profit-making exercise, transport should be considered as important as healthcare or education. We cannot live full, healthy lives, or contribute to society, without it"
Good article from transport journalist Laura Laker on bus deregulation plans.
#Transport #Buses #PublicTransport #UKPolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/11/britain-buses-services-labour-plan?CMP=GTUK_email

2024-09-10 07:14:20

Today is the day water bills will start servicing debt and paying shareholders rather than fixing leaks and ending the sewage scandal.
We Own It has shared analysis from the University of Greenwich that reveals roughly 31% of money collected from water bills goes towards shareholders and paying off debts.
This is the true cost of water privatisation.
#Water #Privatisation #UKPolitics #Sewage #Environment
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/sep/10/remainder-of-years-water-bills-will-pay-dividends-and-service-debts-say-campaigners

2024-09-08 14:42:25

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The stage is set.
#BBCProms #RoyalConcertHall #Nottingham
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/113/102/454/933/267/119/original/042fd1c7919fe9a3.jpg

2024-09-08 13:18:48

Looking forward to this afternoon's BBC Proms concert at the world class Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham. Its almost a sellout so I'm pleased I got my seat early.
The programme by the BBC Concert Orchestra is supposedly based on the theme of Robin Hood (yawn), but there's the haunting Sibelius 3 as a finale.
#BBCProms #ClassicalMusic #Nottingham
https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/efnqwh

2024-09-04 12:27:04

"In committing a genocide, a state crosses a threshold. It cannot be armed into moderation. Nor can it be reasoned into peacemaking. It must be aggressively isolated and sanctioned.
There is no sign western establishments are willing to do that for one very simple reason: they cannot afford to do it.
So they will continue feeding the war machine until either we stop them or its lethal games blow up in all our faces"
Jonathan Cook
Read it all
#Israel #Gaza #Genocide
https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/you-cant-arm-a-genocidal-state-into?publication_id=476450&post_id=148486663&isFreemail=true&r=96cfk&triedRedirect=true

2024-09-04 12:00:34

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This is a catalogue of contempt for the most vulnerable in society
It shames us all.

2024-09-04 10:08:49

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I don't need this sort of patronising lecture on my timeline. Dan is making a valid point about how asylum seekers are perceived by a proportion of our population in the UK and why that is. I'm sure he is aware, as am I, of the underlying macroeconomic which produce such attitudes.

2024-09-04 08:19:22

"Karla was the first trans woman I ever met – an actress, folk singer and sex worker. She introduced me to the trans community in Ciudad Juárez, where I’d been living, on the US border.
She was killed with impunity – no one even found her body until days later. I promised myself that I would honour Karla through art because the society and justice system did nothing for her.”
#Trans #Art #FourthPlinth
The Fourth Plinth Is About to Become a Trans Monument | Novara Media
https://novaramedia.com/2024/09/03/the-fourth-plinth-is-about-to-become-a-trans-monument/?mc_cid=88fa6ed49e&mc_eid=cc062cb3ef

2024-09-04 07:46:20

"It’s not encouraging that the new transport minister, Peter Hendy, in his former job as chair of Network Rail, effectively had an engineer sacked for raising safety concerns about overcrowding at Euston station. But if Labour wants to show that it does in fact give a damn..it should start by doing what its predecessors did not, and honour the outcomes of the inquiry with swift actions"
Rowan Moore on the Grenfell inquiry which reports today.
#Grenfell #UKPolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/01/grenfell-inquiry-culture-of-contempt-britain?CMP=firstedition_email

2024-09-04 07:26:18

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This links to the whole interview with Sarah Wilkinson and is a counter balance to the article you linked to. Jewish Voice for Labour is an antizionist group of Jews who are or were Labour Party members in the UK.
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/sarah-wilkinson-in-her-own-words/

2024-09-04 07:13:04

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Welcome back!

2024-09-04 07:08:11

"Every political leader, on both sides of our Channel, needs to be asked how many lives will be lost before they end these avoidable tragedies. Their continued obsession, and investment, in security measures is not reducing crossings, it is simply pushing people to take ever-increasing risks to do so.”
Steve Smith CEO Care4Calais
#AsylumSeekers #SmallBoats #UKPol
Six children and pregnant woman among 12 dead in deadliest migrant boat tragedy this year | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/channel-migrant-rescue-france-coastguard-b2606209.html?lid=955jm3t8r1pr

2024-09-03 21:06:17

Heat waves may severely jeopardize bumble bees’ ability to smell the flowers they feed on. The finding could foretell how climate change may affect the pollinators’ populations—and human industries that rely on them.
#Bumblebees #ClimateChange #Heatwaves #GlobalHeating #Pollinators
Bumble bees lose their sense of smell after heat waves | Science | AAAS
https://www.science.org/content/article/bumble-bees-lose-their-sense-smell-after-heat-waves

2024-09-03 15:53:18

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That would be a mooli, I think...

2024-09-03 10:47:16

Great Britain’s renewable energy auction has secured enough new projects to power 11m UK homes, with a total of 131 new projects, after the new Labour government increased the amount of funding available to 7 times the sums offered last year.
However, it secured only half the offshore wind capacity needed every year if the government hopes to meet its green energy targets, according to Greenpeace.
#Renewables #SolarFarms #TidalPower #Energy #ClimateEmergency
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/sep/03/renewable-energy-auction-windfarms-tidal-power

2024-09-03 06:58:36

"The option to dramatically reduce or cut off immigration is an illusion. People are going to come here from overseas whatever we do, and what’s more, we need them to. No, the real choice is between a chaotic, punitive system based on political dishonesty, and a well-managed one that works, taking advantage of our good fortune in being a place that can draw people from around the world"
Jonathan Portes on immigration
#Immigration #Economics #UKPolitics #Labour
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/sep/02/the-big-idea-why-were-getting-the-immigration-debate-all-wrong

2024-09-03 06:41:58

BBC Eye report on the recent rapid expansion of settler outposts, illegal under both Israeli and international law, funded by zionist organisations.
Through limiting access to grazing land, outpost settlers are able to put Palestinian farmers in increasingly precarious positions.
“It reaches a point where Palestinians don’t have anything anymore. They can’t eat, they can’t graze, can’t get water"
#Israel #WestBank #Settlers #Palestine #SettlerOutposts
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c207j6wy332o

2024-09-03 06:25:55

Jeremy Corbyn is now in the Independent Alliance with four independent MPs who were elected on pro-Gaza platforms.
The official parliamentary group will not be a political party but said it had formed so that the five MPs were allocated more parliamentary time to ask questions and speak in debates – operating in effect as a political party without a leader.
It has called for more MPs to join. (Currently Labour has suspended 7 MPs).
#IndependentAlliance #UKPolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/sep/02/jeremy-corbyn-alliance-independent-pro-gaza-mps?CMP=firstedition_email

2024-09-03 06:07:18

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The revolution that's actually needed is the abolition of the right to buy. It makes no sense for any council to build houses for rent, only to see them bought at knockdown prices 5 years later and subsequently sold on for private rental.

2024-09-03 05:27:30

"For years, the AfD has pushed a narrative of intolerance to foreigners and migrants as a supposed threat to Germans’ security. This has taken hold among a wider German public, not least because it has been legitimised and echoed time and again by liberal, conservative and some leftwing politicians and journalists"
Good from Hanno Hauenstein on the latest AfD wins in Germany. Liberals are as much to blame for the rise of fascism.
#Germany #AfD #DeutschePolitik
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/02/afd-thuringia-saxony-germany-migration?CMP=GTUK_email

2024-09-02 21:33:06

The huge explosions that destroyed SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket last year also blew one of the biggest ‘holes’ ever detected in the ionosphere, a layer of thin air in the upper atmosphere. The hole stretched for thousands of kilometres and persisted for nearly an hour.
#SpaceX #ElonMusk #Ionosphere #Rockets
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02841-4

2024-09-02 18:24:58

It's a small gesture but it's a start...
However...
"Exempting the F35 fighter jet programme - essentially giving this programme a blank cheque to continue despite knowing that F35s are being used extensively in Gaza - is a catastrophically bad decision for the future of arms control and misses a clear obligation to hold Israel accountable for its extensive war crimes and other violations.”
Sascha Desmuk, Amnesty
#Israel #Gaza #ArmsExports #UKPolitics
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/israel-arms-sales-suspended-david-lammy-b2605778.html?lid=3xoe2qn9fhmg

2024-09-02 18:18:55

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...she quickly dragged out clumps of her curly, thick hair"

2024-09-02 18:16:48

I just LOVE Brad and Mia. I really hope the scriptwriters don't split them up.
#TheArchers

2024-09-02 07:43:23

"As a Palestinian, one of the things you inherit is the haunting, pervasive fear of losing your home without prior notice.
You are constantly trying to protect your past, present and future, perpetually on edge, always bracing for the possibility of having to flee at any moment"
Gazan journalist Maha Hussaini writes about constant forced displacement and the importance of clinging to those few items that still mean home.
#Gaza #Displacement #Israel
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/9/2/unspoken-bonds-gazas-forcibly-displaced-and-the-homes-they-yearn-for?traffic_source=rss

2024-09-02 07:06:01

"A woman who does not bear children is a woman who will never stay home and provide unremunerated care. She is less likely to be held in the domestic zone and extend her caregiving to elderly relatives or the children of others. She cannot be a resource that undergirds a male partner’s career, frailties, time limitations and social demands"
Another excellent article from Nesrine Malik. This childless catlady agrees wholeheartedly.
#Vance #ChildlessWomen #Women #Politics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/02/jd-vance-childless-women-kamala-harris?CMP=firstedition_email

2024-09-02 06:50:28

"The Israeli prime minister is betraying his own people because continued war is his best chance of staying out of prison. And our leaders, who talk like they’re loyal to Israel, have betrayed the Israeli people in order to protect him"
#Israel #Gaza #WestBank #Netanyahu
Six more Israeli hostages are dead because Netanyahu doesn't want peace
https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/six-more-israeli-hostages-are-dead?publication_id=1336368&post_id=148379553&isFreemail=true&r=96cfk&triedRedirect=true

2024-09-02 06:41:05

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We in the UK live in fear of that actually happening. Most of our privatised water companies have been sold to foreign investors. One of them is currently in dispute with the regulator and wants to put up bills by 59%.

2024-09-01 21:35:27

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I find this telling:
"Police referred to the far right in the internal documents produced for the NPCC as “cultural nationalists”."

2024-09-01 18:22:26

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As Richard Murphy put it today
"[Reeves] is very sorry that she thinks that people are going to have to die to pacify the financial markets, but when given the choice between them dying and keeping the markets happy, she chose the markets and threw away the lifebelts required by those in need"
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/09/01/labours-style-of-lifebelt/

2024-09-01 07:48:11

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At least we CAN see it due to the reporters on the ground. The West Bank isn't Gaza. It's still open to Western journalists and media.

2024-09-01 07:31:35

"They are all very worried. Nobody understands what Emmanuel Macron is doing, even the Macronists. He is not giving us [political parties] the chance to work together. If you ask me of course I will say I want our programme to be the priority, but if you ask what can we change, what can we compromise on, I say we can compromise.”
Interview with Lucie Castets, the left candidate for French PM, rejected by Macron.
#France #FranceElection #Macron #NFP #FrancePolitics
‘
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/31/french-left-policies-post-election-deadlock-lucie-castets

2024-09-01 07:20:12

The IDF used a slight 10 year old girl as a human shield in their latest raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp.
The platoon pushed her up to each of the doors in her aunt’s house, while they remained braced behind her ready to fire at whoever might be inside.
"There was no mercy, even on children. Why take a 13- or 14-year-old boy from his house and beat the shit out of him and break his phone?”
A local Baker referring to his son
#Israel #WestBank #WarCrimes #NurShams #IDF
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/31/trauma-in-the-west-bank-after-israeli-raids-palestinian-territory

2024-08-31 21:39:49

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"Labour’s plans for greater reliance on the private sector are likely to drive this shift further towards the NHS becoming a poor service for poor people.”
Dr John Puntis, co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public.

2024-08-31 20:24:46

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Eles são bem-vindos! Welcome!

2024-08-31 06:46:46

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"In a time when there is debate about regulation, the perfect storm approaches. Natural England once again is proving its failure to regulate and hold to account those who damage the environment, and the water companies are once again demonstrating they are institutionally deaf to the plight of the environment and their duty not to damage it.
“We need a complete overhaul of the system, which is dysfunctional and does not work.”
Feargal Sharkey
#Rivers #SSSI #WaterPrivatisation #Water

2024-08-31 06:44:48

"Nothing demonstrates better the appalling environmental record of our polluting water companies than the fact that they are not even taking care of the highly protected areas that they actually own. It simply cannot be right that the payment of large dividends to shareholders and huge bonuses to bosses is prioritised before protecting SSSIs. This entire culture of polluting for profit must end”
Charles Watson, Chair River Action
#Rivers #SSSI #WaterPrivatisation #Water
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/31/water-companies-natural-england-sites-special-scientific-interest?CMP=GTUK_email

2024-08-30 19:09:58

19 year old Palestinain TikTok star Medo Halimy who shared details of Gaza life under siege is killed by Israeli airstrike
He began making his “tent life” video series when he took refuge with his family earlier this year in a strip of southern Gaza that Israel has designated a humanitarian safe zone.
#MedaHalimy #Gaza #IDF #Israel
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/ap-palestinians-israeli-gaza-cairo-b2604711.html

2024-08-29 15:41:45

An estimated 19,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both parents in the genocidal war waged by Israel.
The overwhelming majority of children are hungry, with or without parents, aid workers point out, and have little or no access to healthcare as they contend with the daily threats of death, injury and the loss of loved ones.
#Gaza #Israel #Children #Orphans #Genocide
‘My siblings have become my children’: the plight of Gaza’s orphans
https://archive.is/l3iKv

2024-08-29 08:56:23

Good news.
"Earlier today, the UK government announced that it will not defend the last government’s decision to approve the Rosebank oil field in our court case. This is a massive win for everyone fighting to stop Rosebank and for a liveable future.
By conceding, the new government has made the right decision not to waste time and money trying to defend the indefensible"
#Rosebank #NorthSeaOil #UKPolitics #Oil #Gas
#StopRosebank #StopJackdaw
https://www.stopcambo.org.uk/updates/uk-government-not-to-defend-rosebank-oil-field-in-court

2024-08-28 05:58:56

"We face the greatest predicament humankind has confronted: the erosion and possible collapse of our life-support systems. Its speed and scale have taken even scientists by surprise. The potential impacts are greater than any recent pandemic, or any war we have suffered. Yet the effort to persuade people of the need for action has been left almost entirely to either the private or voluntary sectors. And it simply does not work"
George Monbiot
#ClimateEmergency
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/28/dear-ministers-i-am-a-climate-crisis-campaigner-nationalise-me-right-now

2024-08-26 11:11:59

"First we did it with manganese. Later we did it with nickel and lithium. And then we used a different strain of bacteria and we were able to extract cobalt and nickel.”
University of Edinburgh scientists are using bacteria helping to extract rare metals from old batteries to help create a circular green economy.
#RareMetals #GreenTech #Bacteria
#ClimateEmergency
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/25/bacteria-helping-to-extract-rare-metals-from-old-batteries-in-boost-for-green-tech?CMP=GTUK_email

2024-08-26 06:55:35

Today's Guardian briefing on #CruiseShips
* European cruise ships alone emitted more sulphurous oxides than 1bn cars in 2022, creating huge pollution in cities where they dock.
* Cruise ship CO2 emissions in Europe rose by 17% between 2017 & 2022, reaching the equivalent of 50,000 flights between Paris & New York.
* A single ship can emit as much diesel exhaust as 34,400 idling lorries to power operations while docked.
#Pollution #Environment #ClimateEmergency
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/26/tuesday-briefing-first-edition-cruisezillas

2024-08-25 07:44:18

Starmer is talking bollocks.
There is no need for a round of further Tory austerity. There are many ways of raising the necessary billions, if only he and Reeves could ditch their craven adherence to neoliberal ideology and 'fiscal rectitude'.
They could start by taxing capital gains at the same rate as income tax and restricting pension tax relief to the basic rate. This would more than cover their fictional £22bn black hole.
#LabourAusterity #UKPolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/24/keir-starmer-warns-of-tough-times-ahead-to-fix-tory-ruins

2024-08-22 15:43:31

The BBC has produced dozens of films and articles for oil and gas companies, agricultural giants, fossil fuel states, and high-emission transport firms in recent years.
The content was produced by BBC Storyworks, which boasts on its website that it 'leverages the reputation of the BBC'
My licence fee pays for that!
#Greenwashing #BBC #BBBStoryworks #Polluters #Oil #Gas #PR
BBC Accused of Doing PR for Major Polluters - DeSmog
https://www.desmog.com/2024/08/22/bbc-storyworks-pr-greenwashing-major-polluters/

2024-08-22 11:55:22

Major corporations, including Mastercard, Meta, and Coca-Cola, are quietly sponsoring a Canadian conference headlined by Christopher Rufo, a far-right activist and crusader against diversity initiatives. Many of these same companies, however, champion diversity in their public communications.
#Canada #FarRight #ChristopherRufo #Diversity #CocaCola #Mastercard #Meta #DoorDash #SunLife
https://popular.info/p/major-corporations-sponsor-anti-woke?publication_id=1664&post_id=147983589&isFreemail=true&r=96cfk&triedRedirect=true

2024-08-22 07:07:40

"[The war in Gaza] will be counted against [Biden] forever. He could have stopped it long ago. He did not, and even now, when everything is already hopeless, he lets Blinken surrender to Netanyahu's demands"
Gideon Levy in a damning column in Haaretz yesterday.
#Israel #Gaza #Biden #USPolitics #Netanyahu #Capitulation
https://archive.is/mVGEV

2024-08-21 11:35:31

Well done NATAS. Yet another attempt to silence a Palestinian journalist bites the dust.
#Bisan #BisanOwda #Emmys #Palestine #Journalism #Gaza #NATAS
Emmy body defends nomination of Gaza journalist Bisan Owda after 150 industry pros call for it to be revoked | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/bisan-owda-gaza-emmys-b2599502.html

2024-08-21 05:44:43

Sweden has issued licences to kill 20% of its brown bear population in the country’s annual bear hunt, which begins today.
"It is a pure trophy hunt. Wildlife management in Sweden is about killing animals instead of preserving them to the best of our ability.”
Magnus Orrebrant, Chair, Swedish Carnivore Association
Brown bears are a “strictly protected species” in Europe, so the high hunting quotas could be in breach of the EU habitat directive.
#Bears #Sweden #Hunting
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/21/sweden-to-kill-20-per-cent-of-its-brown-bears-in-annual-hunt-aoe?CMP=GTUK_email

2024-08-20 19:05:40

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No. And yes, I took Larkin's advice many years ago, having been fucked up by my parents.

2024-08-20 18:59:59

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I met Philip Larkin in 1969 when I was 12. He was a friend of a schoolfriend's father, who had taken us both to a chamber recital at Hull University. I didn't realise how famous he was then. He was avuncular and interested that I was learning to play the viola. I remember his very shiny bald head.

2024-08-20 11:16:21

"Hot summers are typical in India but this year the country saw its longest-ever heatwave, with 24 consecutive days above 40C in May. India is a humid country, so high temperatures combined with moisture in the air mean it also feels much hotter than the thermometer indicates.
India isn’t alone in this new, scorching reality. The world is burning"
Stuti Mishra
#GlobalHeating #India #ClimateEmergency
My life at 50C: India’s new reality of extreme heat | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/climate-100/india-weather-heatwave-2024-climate-100-b2581603.html

2024-08-19 21:31:27

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No surprises there.
Labour now the pro-business party, says Labour's Rachel Reeves
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-60068222

2024-08-18 11:47:09

"After each atrocity it perpetrates, the Israeli state has a standard modus operandi: deny, deflect, deceive, & wait for attention to move elsewhere. Most media outlets have collaborated with this strategy, which has allowed Israel to continue its genocidal onslaught, because it prevents observers from joining the dots to understand what this really is"
#Israel #Gaza #HindRajab
Hind Rajab’s death has already been forgotten. That’s exactly what Israel wants | Owen Jones
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/18/hind-rajab-israeli-state-atrocity

2024-08-18 08:50:09

I missed this last week. Lovely #GoodNews story about the ginnel gardens of Manchester.
( Note for readers: a ginnel is a back alleyway between terraced houses).
#Gardening #Manchester #UrbanGardens
‘When it’s sunny, we get the barbecue out’: urban gardeners transform foul alleys into verdant havens | Access to green space | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/12/when-its-sunny-we-get-the-barbecue-out-urban-gardeners-transform-foul-alleys-into-verdant-havens?CMP=upside_email

2024-08-17 18:13:04

"It’s now been more than 200 days since Israeli forces killed 6-year-old Hind Rajab, her family members, and the medics sent to save her.
Since then, I have pressed the US State Department time and again on the killing. At nearly every point, the department has deflected, saying the Israeli government is investigating itself"
#Israel #Gaza #WarCrimes
200 Days and Still No Justice for Hind - by Prem Thakker
https://zeteo.com/p/200-days-justice-for-hind?publication_id=2325511&post_id=147791603&isFreemail=true&r=96cfk&triedRedirect=true

2024-08-17 06:09:31

"Millions of users have clung on, some out of hope, some for a range of more valid reasons. At a certain point, though, the sludge becomes impossible to ignore. To nick a phrase from the great Victor Lewis-Smith, it is like having a pissing area in a swimming pool"
Financial Times journalist Katie Martin ( who finds Mastodon "too clunky"!) on (almost) leaving X/Twitter.
#ElonMusk #X #Twitter #Bluesky #Mastodon #SocialMedia
How to break up with your X
https://archive.is/LQon1

2024-08-14 07:25:28

"Oak trees accumulate more wood when there is more carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere...After we increased CO₂ levels to what will be the planetary level in the 2050s, trees took more of it from the atmosphere and their wood production increased by 10%."
#Carbon #CO2 #Forests #Trees ##ClimateEmergency
https://theconversation.com/we-pumped-extra-co-into-an-oak-forest-and-discovered-trees-will-be-woodier-in-future-236617

2024-08-14 06:41:12

Some good news.
A beaver baby boom is under way across Britain this summer in places where the species had been extinct for centuries.
I'm delighted. I helped fund Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trusts' reintroduction of beavers, along with thousands of others. Beavers provide part of the answer to flooding downstream of our rivers. The more beavers we have the better!
#Beavers #Wildlife #Flooding #Rivers #Environment #Nature
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/14/britain-experiencing-a-beaver-baby-boom-as-kits-spotted-across-the-country

2024-08-14 05:56:28

By accident, I just heard an item on BBC Radio 4's Today programme covering the Athens wildfires. Not a mention of global heating or the climate emergency. "Of course, Greece is used to wildfires," says the reporter, "they have them every year."
#Athens #Wildfires #BBCNews #Radio4Today

2024-08-13 11:29:07

If you read only one thing today, let it be this.
Distinguished Israeli genocide historian, Omer Bartov, writes about the complete indifference of most Israelis to what is being done in their name.
#Israel #Gaza #Genocide #Holocaust #IDF
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/13/israel-gaza-historian-omer-bartov?CMP=firstedition_email

2024-08-10 07:16:39

At least 100 Palestinian civilians, including children, were killed at dawn today, Saturday, after Israeli forces targeted a school in Gaza City whilst displaced people performed morning prayers.
The IDF said in a statement that it struck a "Hamas control centre." As usual, it provided no evidence to back up the claim.
#Israel #Gaza #Genocide #WarCrimes
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-strikes-school-kills-least-100-displaced-palestinians

2024-08-08 05:30:01

A joyous account of the huge antifascist protests around England last night which ensured few of the far right rioters dared show their faces.
#FarRightRiots #UKRiots #Antifascists #Fascism
United against hate: England’s counter-protesters left with little to counter | Protest | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/07/anti-racism-protesters-fill-streets-of-english-cities-as-far-right-threat-recedes?CMP=GTUK_email

2024-08-07 08:00:18

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Canvassing in the 2019 GE for Labour, I came across many such men. The constant theme was betrayal. Labour had betrayed them by supporting a watered-down Brexit. The Tories had betrayed them by not being sufficiently anti-immigrant. I suspect in many cases their wives had betrayed them, judging by their apparent single status. They were often either unemployed or in low status jobs and resentful of imagined 'elites'. There is definitely a type.

2024-08-07 05:16:11

"For years prior to the current war, Israel has been moving slowly to the political right and far right, the political extremism of which has surpassed that of any generation of Zionist leaders who have governed the occupation state since the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948. According to an Israeli Democracy Institute poll published in January last year, 73 per cent of Israeli Jews aged between 18 and 24, identify as “right wing”.
#Israel #FarRight #Zionism
https://www.juancole.com/2024/08/zionism-beyond-netanyahu.html

2024-08-06 07:52:04

"Over four years, researchers vaccinated 265 badgers across 12 farms in Cornwall. They found the percentage of badgers testing positive for bTB fell from 16% to zero.
“It’s the best result you could get from a small study,” said the lead researcher, Prof Rosie Woodroffe, from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL)."
#Badgers #BovineTB #Vaccination
Vaccinating badgers more effective than culls in stopping bovine TB, study finds | Badgers | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/06/badger-vaccination-cull-eradicate-bovine-tuberculosis-btb-farmers-cornwall-study-zsl-aoe

2024-08-06 07:21:42

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The one thing Labour appears to be for is appeasing finance and the markets. The predominantly white, middle-class cabinet is as far removed from the daily lives of people on benefits as was the Tory cabinet before them. I never expected significant change from the the likes of Starmer, Reeves, Cooper and Streeting.

2024-08-05 19:46:21

Woah...
A US judge has ruled that Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly on online searches and related advertising.
The decision could reshape how technology giants do business in the future.
"Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Mehta wrote in his opinion.
#Google #Monopoly #Technology #Advertising #OnlineSearches
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0k44x6mge3o

2024-08-03 07:25:27

"One of the Biden administration’s biggest mistakes over the past few months has been to frame the protracted ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel as only focused on Gaza, without recognising that all of Iran’s allies in the region, especially Hezbollah and the Houthis, have made clear that they too would stand down once the fighting stops in Gaza"
Mohamad Bazzi writes on the dangers of Israel escalating a Middle East war.
#Israel #Gaza #Iran #Hezbollah
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/02/gaza-israel-iran-joe-biden-middle-east

2024-07-31 14:14:44

"Israel, in fact, has a long and cynical history of killing Hamas leaders who are in the midst of ceasefire negotiations or, even, proposing long-term truces with the Jewish state".
#Israel #Hamas #IsmailHaniyeh
#Assassination #Ceasefire
https://zeteo.com/p/israel-history-killing-hamas-ismail-haniyeh?publication_id=2325511&post_id=147193020&isFreemail=true&r=96cfk&triedRedirect=true

2024-07-26 11:30:11

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And it's happened...
Britain drops its challenge to the ICC request for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the correct course of action. Now ban arms exports...
#ICC #Israel #Netanyahu #Gallant #UKPolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/jul/26/britain-drops-challenge-icc-arrest-warrants-israeli-leaders-netanyahu-gallant

2024-07-26 09:07:50

Yasmine Ahmed, UK Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that it is “absolutely critical” that the UK does not continue to challenge the right of the ICC to seek arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minster, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, believes could bear responsibility for crimes against humanity.
#Israel #ICC #WarCrimes #LabourGovernment #UKPolitics #HumanRights #HRW #Netanyahu
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jul/26/labour-must-drop-challenge-over-netanyahu-arrest-warrant-says-human-rights-chief

2024-07-10 07:59:52

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The big takeaway for me from this article is that the worst excesses were instituted in the 2000s under Labour governments, who appeared to do nothing to restrict the water companies.

2024-07-08 18:44:32

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Indeed, as the article points out:
"The polling found that 6% of people said the ID requirements had affected their decision on whether or not to vote and that they then did not vote, which if reflected nationally could mean up to 2.8 million people not voting when they might otherwise have done"

2024-07-06 13:49:25

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Great minds! As soon as I read Christine's post I thought of Duffield. I wouldn't put it past him.

2024-07-06 10:28:04

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I'm not holding my breath.

2024-07-06 09:35:18

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Here's a good review from Jonathan Portes on Torsten Bell's new book on solving the problems left by the Tories: 'Great Britain?: How We Get Our Future Back'.
#LabourGovernment #ToryBritain #Politics #Economics #UKPolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/06/great-britain-by-torsten-bell-why-labour-must-move-fast-and-fix-things

2024-07-05 06:51:30

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But from Starmer's viewpoint, this is a success. He has kept out a popular, pro Palestine leftwinger. He's already crowing about how his changes to Labour (meaning driving out the left, including expelling the most Jewish members of any Labour leader) have paid off.

2024-07-05 06:20:56

It looks like this Labour 'landslide' has been secured with a voter turnout and voter share substantially less than Labour's "worst ever defeat" in 2019.
It would also have been a smaller victory, had Reform not taken huge swathes of the Tory vote, enabling Labour to win constituencies they would normally have lost.
Many people didn't bother to vote, which is the big takeaway from this election and one that Reform will exploit in the next 5 years. Disaffected voters are fascism's food.
#GE2024

2024-07-04 06:12:06

"Britain had its problems in 2010 – not least the impact of the 2008 financial crash – but it had strong public services and a visibly improved public realm..."Broken Britain”, it turns out, was a [Tory] campaign promise.
Jonn Elledge catalogues 14 years of terrible Tory policies.
Polling stations are now open. You can finally do something about it.
#GTTO #GeneralElection #GE2024 #ToryBritain #UKPolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/03/list-terrible-policy-conservatives-britain-2010?CMP=firstedition_email

2024-07-04 06:04:43

THE POLLING STATIONS ARE OPEN!
If you haven't yet voted by post, you know what you have to do today.
GET THE TORIES OUT!
Whether you vote tactically or from conscience, just vote (and don't forget your photo ID. Link to accepted forms of ID below).
#GTTO #GetTheToriesOut #GE2024 #GeneralElection
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/photo-id-youll-need

2024-07-02 18:01:21

Climate protester Roger Hallam ignored judge’s instructions, refused to leave the witness box & delivered a 2 hours-long speech explaining to jurors why a judge was wrong to rule that he and co-defendants could not bring evidence in their defence on the impacts of climate breakdown, and why such evidence justified the sort of acts of which they are accused.
What a hero!
#ClimateProtest #UKPolitics #Law #ClimateEmergency
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/02/climate-protest-accused-defies-judge-to-give-hours-long-speech-in-court

2024-07-02 09:13:14

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I am rereading Anthony Trollope's Barchester and Palliser series of novels, catching up on Nordic Murders on Channel 4 (an entertaining way to improve my German) and watching old Morse dramas ( to check out what we really looked like and thought in the Tory eighties). I've had enough of the constant imposed diet of sport and politics on TV.

2024-07-01 06:57:35

"Anybody aware of Karl Popper’s paradox of tolerance will know that tolerating the intolerant will only allow the intolerant to win, and thereby eliminating tolerance. Racist posters, mass wearing of black shirts, Nazi slogans – none of these are welcome. To allow them unhindered will mean that none of our children – whatever colour or creed – will have a future"
#Fascism #Nazism
Nazism is now hiding in plain sight – from posters to football chants | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/racism-nazis-far-right-football-b2570161.html

2024-06-29 07:45:43

He's been galloping around doing good since 6am. He's now exhausted by his efforts.
#Caturday #GingerCat #RescueCat
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/698/783/317/515/707/original/80223eb4b981749c.jpg

2024-06-28 07:12:45

Good article on how stigma is the "glue that holds poverty in place” and how the government has exploited social stigma, a British phenomenon not echoed in other European countries.
#Poverty #UKPolitics #SocialSecurity #Benefits #BenefitsCulture #SocialStigma
Stigma against benefits has made devastating poverty acceptable in Britain
https://theconversation.com/stigma-against-benefits-has-made-devastating-poverty-acceptable-in-britain-229563

2024-06-27 16:17:34

"BrewDog has a history of treating their workers with contempt, but to sack a worker of colour for objecting to members of a fascist organisation meeting in their workplace is a new low for this company"
Bryan Simpson, Lead Organiser at Unite Hospitality.
#BoycottBrewdog #Racism #Fascism #EDL
Asian BrewDog Worker Sacked After Raising Concerns About EDL Presence
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2024/06/asian-brewdog-worker-sacked-after-raising-concerns-about-edl-presence

2024-06-27 05:40:43

Today, the Good Law Project is airing their documentary short, 'Carbon conspiracy: How shadowy think-tanks went to war on net zero'.
In it, we hear from leading figures in media and politics to explore the insidious network based around 55 Tufton Street with undisclosed donors - a network that lobbied for Brexit for years and is now focused on downplaying the climate crisis.
Link goes live at 1pm BST
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MbxKlsVtpPI
#GoodLawProject #Law #TuftonStreet #ClimateDenial #ClimateEmergency

2024-06-27 05:32:35

About 230 climate-aligned lawsuits have been filed against corporations and trade associations since 2015, two-thirds of which have been initiated since 2020, with the majority successful, according to analysis published today by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
#Law #ClimateEmergency #Environment #GRICCE #ClimateWashing
Sharp rise in number of climate lawsuits against companies, report says | Climate crisis | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/27/sharp-rise-in-number-of-climate-lawsuits-against-companies-report-says

2024-06-26 06:38:02

"The average public library... is now an informal citizens advice bureau, a business development centre, a community centre, and a mental health provider. It is an unofficial Sure Start centre, a homelessness shelter, a literacy and foreign language-learning centre, a calm space where tutors can help struggling kids, an asylum support provider, and driving theory test centre..
#Libraries #Librarians #ToryBritain
https://www.theguardian.com/news/article/2024/jun/25/how-britains-libraries-provide-more-than-books?CMP=firstedition_email

2024-06-26 06:05:02

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I think the main problem is the high rate of interest the govt pays the clearing banks on its own money. It could easily be halved or got rid of entirely. Richard Murphy is good on this.