Notices by JuneSim63 💚 (junesim63@mstdn.social)

"When you plant a tree, it does not matter who you are or where you came from. Your hands are in the soil, and you belong to the planet as a human being. We don’t just plant trees. We plant belonging, and we plant purpose.”

#AsylumSeekers #Refugees #Environment #Nature

‘We plant belonging’: how nature charities and asylum seekers work together in UK countryside | Immigration and asylum | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/12/we-plant-belonging-how-nature-charities-and-asylum-seekers-work-together-in-uk-countryside

Today, Green MP Hannah Spencer is to introduce a bill in parliament that would pave the way for a maximum workplace temperature in England.

Sorely needed. Go Hannah!

#ClimateEmergency #Heatwaves #UKPolitics #GreenParty

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/12/green-mp-hannah-spencer-aims-to-pass-law-on-maximum-workplace-temperatures

"The surge in rooftop solar power is particularly difficult to manage during the summer when long, sunny days lead to more generation than a local grid might need. Specialist equipment can help to manage potential voltage issues, but these upgrades have not yet taken place in the area near the Derril Water solar park"

National Grid too busy paying out dividends to its shareholders? Meanwhile the members of this solar co-op stand to lose £2m.

#SolarPower #NationalGrid

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/12/solar-farm-forced-to-shut-derril-water-biggest-grid-overload-fears

"Evidence to the review suggests cuts to wider public services, long waits for NHS treatment, a decline in healthy life expectancy pulling more working-age people into ill health, and soaring living costs may have helped drive the rise in Pip claims"

NOT more young people with poor mental health as many claimed.

#PIP #Disability #Benefits #TimmsReview #UKPolitics

Disability benefits system ‘not working’ Timms review finds | Benefits | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/09/disability-benefits-system-not-working-timms-review-finds

"Quite frankly, it’s insulting that the government has launched their biggest ever campaign to encourage the British public to reduce water usage in a heatwave, while charging full steam ahead with data centre expansion"

#AI #DataCentres #Water #ClimateEmergency #Heatwave #UKPolitics

We’re being asked to save two buckets of water a day. Meanwhile data centres drink a town’s worth
https://www.thenerve.news/p/adele-walton-heatwave-data-centres-water-shortage

"Music means a lot to me. Before the war, I didn’t think about it in this way but during the war I discovered that it has become a real refuge for us. Even if only for a short while, music gives us a chance to escape reality.”

#Gaza #Music
Gaza’s musicians reopen bomb-shattered conservatory – in tents | Gaza | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/05/gazas-musicians-reopen-bomb-shattered-conservatory-in-tents

"In addition to trips paid for directly by the Israeli government, British politicians including Tice have been taken to Israel by Reform Friends of Israel.
The group is led by Jason Pearlman, who until December was a media adviser to Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog"

#Israel #ReformUK #Lobbying #UKPolitics
Israel spent £50,000 lobbying Reform
https://www.declassifieduk.org/israel-spent-50000-lobbying-reform/

The NHS will have to divert £45bn from essential services to pay for new medicines under the terms of the UK-US trade deal agreed last December, leading to more than 200,000 avoidable deaths of patients, analysis has found.

Another of Starmer's legacies. He rolled over when Trump demanded we cave to Big Pharma.

#BigPharma #UKPolitics
US-UK drug deal could result in 229,000 excess deaths in England, analysis suggests | NHS | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/01/us-uk-drug-deal-could-result-in-229000-excess-deaths-in-england-analysis-suggests

"One pound in every £11 of UK government spending on contractors went to private equity-controlled companies last year, research shows, including key services such as transport, waste management and healthcare"

Nationalisation would rid key public services of these ghouls. It would also be of interest to track their political donations.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/28/1-in-every-11-spent-uk-public-contractors-private-equity

#PrivateEquity #PublicServices #UKPolitics

"..cold river water from the Seine is pumped through one pipe, which runs right next to a secondary pipe carrying warm water from the city’s buildings. A thin metal wall separates them and a heat exchanger allows the heat from the warm city water to enter the cold Seine water without the fluids ever touching"

#Paris #Heat #ClimateEmergency #DistrictCooling

‘Kind of miracle solution’: How Paris is harnessing the Seine to replace air-con | Extreme heat | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/26/underground-revolution-seine-cooling-network-paris-buildings-heat

Four hundred thousand children in the UK were supported by baby banks in 2025, an 11% increase from the year before, prompting warnings from charities that they “cannot continue to absorb the impact of child poverty on this scale” without government support.

Starmer supporters still banging on about his 'decency'.

#ChildPoverty #UKPolitics #BabyBanks

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/23/uk-children-baby-banks-poverty

"In the worst El Niño years in the 19th century, the death toll from famines in India, China and Brazil stretched into the tens of millions. There is some evidence to suggest it set the scene for the French Revolution in the 18th century with erratic weather that ruined harvests, and it helped the Spanish conquer the Inca empire in the 16th century"

#ElNiňo #Drought #ClimateEmergency #Famine

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/21/el-nino-fears-godzilla-strength-hunger-famine

Physicians, who had all performed at least 2,000 colonoscopies during their careers, were given access to an AI system that analyses colonoscopy images. Once physicians began using it, their performance dropped significantly whenever the system was unavailable.

#AI #Medicine #Deskilling

Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re not good
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01947-1

"Most presidents’ skill set begins to fade as they age; Trump has got such a limited toolkit that it’s putting him over the edge.”

#Trump #USPolitics

As Donald Trump turns 80, he faces a foe he can never defeat: Father Time. That’s a problem for us all | Donald Trump | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/14/donald-trump-turns-80-faces-foe-father-time

"Any kids studying the 1930s and the rise of fascism for GCSE have no excuse for not getting a high score. All they need to do to understand it is to look around them. Reform is already improving educational standards and Farage isn’t even in power yet"

#ReformUK #Pogrom #Ireland #Belfast

Stewart Lee: Ireland is an island of fable and magic. It’s just a shame about the pogrom
https://www.thenerve.news/p/stewart-lee-ireland-belfast-attack-pogrom-farage-tommy-robinson

"Some London councils pay millions of pounds to intermediary companies to provide often-unfurnished flats or houses hundreds of miles away, sending families in one-way taxis to unfamiliar places sometimes in the dead of night."

This is a disgrace and exacerbates tensions over housing, fuelling the far right in northern towns.

#Homelessness #Housing #London

Vulnerable families illegally ‘dumped’ hundreds of miles away by London councils | Housing | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/07/vulnerable-families-illegally-dumped-hundreds-miles-away-london-councils

"In the Seventies, when my family first moved to this country, we were the target of those comedians. I don’t see a lot of difference between the racist and hostile jokes directed at my family by comedians in the Seventies, and the targeting of the trans community now. If you come from any sort of minority, marginalised background, we’ve all got to have each others’ backs. Prejudice is a contagion.”
Nish Kumar

#Comedy #NishKumar
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/nish-kumar-interview-ricky-gervais-jimmy-carr-b2987362.html

This is the final stage of the genocide.

"At the end of the day, the only people remaining in the yellow zone, according to the Americans, are Hamas and other armed groups. And then Israel will be free to deal with them as they want. This is the thinking, this is the planning, and this is what I see happening in the coming weeks and months”

#Israel #Gaza #Genocide
Netanyahu orders Israeli army to seize ‘70% of Gaza Strip’, violating ceasefire deal | Gaza | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/28/netanyahu-orders-israeli-army-seize-70-gaza-strip-violating-ceasefire-deal?CMP=GTUK_email

"In 1956, Monroe supported her then-husband, Miller, in his refusal to name names to the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities headed up by the notorious Senator Joseph McCarthy in the attempt to remove perceived Communist influence in Hollywood. In 1960, she wrote to New York Times editor Lester Markel, a friend of hers, expressing her support of Fidel Castro in Cuba"

#MarilynMonroe
Marilyn Monroe at 100: Hollywood made her a myth – she spent her life resisting it
https://theconversation.com/marilyn-monroe-at-100-hollywood-made-her-a-myth-she-spent-her-life-resisting-it-281289

"Europe’s productivity problem is real. But the caricature of a continent collapsing under regulation is not. Much of the apparent US-European growth gap reflects population growth, purchasing power, working hours and the very different social bargain Europe has chosen to preserve. This suggests that Europe does not need to become the US to become more competitive"

#Regulation #Business #Europe
#EU

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/27/how-the-plastic-bottle-cap-became-a-parable-for-the-value-of-eu-regulation