On the generosity of strangers, and how an economist changed the game for kidney patients My latest story for @reasonstobecheerful.world reasonstobecheerful.world/kidney-excha...

The Chains of Generosity Transforming Kidney Donation

More than 90,000 people in the U.S. are on the waitlist for a kidney transplant. How many of their lives could be saved by a stranger?

reasonstobecheerful.world

Hey Internet, I'm looking for a favour: - Anyone who is or knows doctors or healthworkers who operate in the UK and would like to talk about their experiences working during heatwaves... please DM me Thank you in advance!

Dublin's Bohemian FC is a game-changing football club introducing a new economic vision to Dublin - story by my @pioneerspost.bsky.social colleague: www.pioneerspost.com/news-views/2...

The Editor's Post: FIFA vs Bohemian FC – competing visions of football for good

Before Spain and Argentina face off in the FIFA World Cup final on Sunday, here's an alternative vision of the impact professional football can make on the world.

pioneerspost.com

This is so depressing

Press Gazette@pressgazette.co.uk · 4w ago

Bauer Media’s monthly Take a Break-branded fiction magazine is pausing commissions as it introduces AI tools to help produce more content in-house. Pangram finds short stories in the title credited to the in-house team are 100% AI generated pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/m...

"Organisations working to promote human rights, religious and racial harmony or equality and diversity were the most negatively affected" @charitycommission.blog.gov.uk.web.brid.gy news.sky.com/story/staff-...

Staff at 'thousands of charities' threatened and intimidated for 'doing their jobs'

The Charity Commission surveyed nearly 3,000 charity trustees, and over a quarter said they had been affected by a "challenging social environment"

news.sky.com

Special report from Port Arthur, Texas. It is one of the saddest, most desolate places I have ever visited. It is also where Aramco, FIFA's major worldwide partner and an inescapable presence at the World Cup, owns the largest oil refinery in the US. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

‘This is a hellhole’: Aramco makes its presence hurt in the shadow of the World Cup

The oil giant’s sponsorship deal with Fifa has featured prominently at matches in Houston. But 100 miles away in another Texas city, residents say the firm’s refinery is exposing them to poisonous gas...

theguardian.com

#CommunityEnergy initiatives will play a vital role in our future energy system, but access to funding can be a challenge. We're sharing our top tips and resources on how to fund your projects: 💰 Grants 📢 Crowdfunding 💸 Raising shares 🏦 Institutional investment Find out more 👇 #UpTheEnergy

Funding a community energy project - Centre for Sustainable Energy

Looking for funding for your community energy project? There's lots of grants and funding schemes available for new and existing projects.

bit.ly

1,300 people are known to have died during Europe's window shattering heatwave These are just the ones we know of so far, directly attributable to the excess heat. The true figure will take months to reveal. The fossil fuel industry has blood on its hands www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Europe's heatwave 'linked to 1,300 deaths' as more records broken

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that Europe is not prepared for high temperatures.

bbc.co.uk

"If we continue to allow the fossil fuel industry to profitably poison us to death, this will be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives" coveringclimatenow.org/from-us-stor... @coveringclimatenow.org @patrickgaley.bsky.social

“The Coolest Summer for the Rest of Our Lives” — Covering Climate Now

Fifty years ago, the recent deadly heatwave that shattered temperature records across Europe would have been “virtually impossible.” That’s according to a new scientific study by the nonprofit, World ...

coveringclimatenow.org

New by me —> Now we're getting AI fake news complaining about how AI fake news is the death of real news! How a fake news site splits its energy between (a) the imagined closure of real US newspapers and (b) Chinese-friendly takes on Taiwan www.niemanlab.org/2026/07/now-...

Now we’re getting AI fake news complaining about how AI fake news is the death of real news

Did 47 Alabama newspapers die on a single day and no one noticed? (Hint: No, they didn't.)

niemanlab.org

"More than 80% of [journalists] said they were too busy chasing the news agenda to produce more climate change coverage" Come on, editors, you can do so much better pressgazette.co.uk/news/climate... @pressgazette.co.uk @coveringclimatenow.org

Climate scientists say news coverage ignores cause of UK heatwave

Connection between greenhouse emissions and extreme heat in UK 'indisputable'.

pressgazette.co.uk

Good tips here for those pitching opinion pieces generally, not just to Devex:

Devex@devex.com · last mo.

How to submit an opinion article to Devex? The goal of our opinion section is to publish thought leadership that drives global progress. Devex Editor @honestypern.bsky.social lays out everything you need to get published on our platform.

"During the time he was homeless, he was largely ignored or treated with hostility... The employees [at the host companies] were the first people who actually had conversations with him" Love this by @michaelahaas.bsky.social @reasonstobecheerful.world reasonstobecheerful.world/offices-home...

French Companies Are Inviting Homeless People to Sleep in Their Offices

Most workplaces sit empty every night. Across France, companies are opening theirs up to people experiencing homelessness.

reasonstobecheerful.world

"If you can’t be bothered to write it, why should anyone be bothered to read it?" Very well put by @cityam.bsky.social: www.cityam.com/there-should...

There should have been an op-ed here but you filed AI slop

City AM's inbox is drowning in AI pitches. Anna Moloney, who spends her days copy and pasting them into detection software, has had enough.

cityam.com

Telling kids “how cool democracy is” probably won’t work, says Greg Sanderson. What if they experience it first-hand? By me for @positive.news.web.brid.gy: www.positive.news/society/demo... @soljourno.bsky.social

The schools giving children a say in how they are run

What if children were given a say in how their school is run? In some parts of the UK they do thanks to a bold project aiming to strengthen democracy and improve school life

positive.news

I visited Windmill Community Gardens, which is giving people confidence to grow food themselves - and selling 75 organic veg bags each week theisleofthanetnews.com/2026/05/29/m... @islethanetnews.bsky.social #greatbiggreenweek

Margate charity opening its gardens to the community during Great Big Green Week

By Anna Patton When Joe Ball checks the wildlife camera at Windmill Community Gardens, he never quite knows what he will find. The lead grower at the Margate charity’s market garden says dragonflie…

theisleofthanetnews.com

Street football keeping young people busy, a weekly park kickabout for refugees, and the football club opening up facilities to homeless people - my feature for the Margate Mercury's summer issue: www.brightsidepublishing.com/margate-merc... @margatemercury.bsky.social @margatefc.bsky.social

“You know, people don’t ask me these questions" -- what a bizarre response. Thankfully @vox.com and other people ARE in fact asking these questions www.vox.com/climate/4894... #philanthropy #climatecrisis

I asked a billionaire about his environmental philanthropy. It didn’t go well.

The contradiction at the core of big-money environmental giving.

vox.com

Karen knows how it feels to ask for help. First, “the body blow” of accepting that you’re struggling. Then, “making yourself lesser” when you approach someone who knows or has more than you do. "I know from bitter experience that it is a huge thing to knock on the door". My story for @bigissue.com:

Big Issue@bigissue.com · 2mo ago

Keren Badenoch and her daughter Jessica Taylor created Trusted Money Confidence, a peer-to-peer support programme which helps people to take control of their finances

"People believe individuals seeking asylum account for 33% of immigration, when in reality it is about 9%. They also believe people travelling to the UK for study account for 24% of immigration, when it is in fact just over half." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m... @britishfuture.bsky.social

Voters across parties believe UK net migration is rising despite sharp drop

Study, published as latest migration figures are released, shows incorrect perceptions driving immigration debate

theguardian.com

'Alex quit their virtual assistant job in late 2025, saying they couldn’t handle the “mind-numbing” workload anymore. “It’s all AI comments by fake people answered with fake replies by other fake people... like none of this is real.”' restofworld.org/2026/virtual... @restofworld.org

The Filipino virtual assistants behind LinkedIn’s “thought leadership” content mill

For $7 an hour, virtual assistants use AI tools to write LinkedIn posts and comments on behalf of Western executives.

restofworld.org

“We’re in, historically, a very deprived area with very poor access to nature... I think it’s immensely important that that resource that is owned and managed by the community, rather than restricted for people" By me for @islethanetnews.bsky.social theisleofthanetnews.com/2026/05/15/h...

How Margate volunteers transformed ‘moonscape’ into ‘wildlife haven’

By Anna Patton A community woodland in Margate is set to hit 1,600 volunteering hours this year – double the hours it recorded just three years ago. That’s despite a nationwide volunteer shortage, …

theisleofthanetnews.com

Tommy Robinson is marching through London again today. He presents himself as a patriot, a journalist, and a victim of the establishment. But in reality he is a serial criminal with a rap sheet two decades long. Here’s the record he’d rather you didn’t read. 🧵

Donations by the UK’s 100 wealthiest have risen to nearly £5bn, £1.25bn up on last year’s total giving - @civilsociety.bsky.social www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/charity... #philanthropy #richlist

Charity founder becomes first Brit to donate more than £1bn in a year

civilsociety.co.uk

Richard Gere on feeling "deeply ashamed" of what his country has done, and why his new film offers “a corrective of who we really are as human beings" - my piece from the Skoll World Forum: www.pioneerspost.com/news-views/2... @skollfoundation.bsky.social @pioneerspost.bsky.social

The Editor's Post: Richard Gere brings star power to Skoll World Forum

The Hollywood actor and practising Buddhist on the purpose of life – and why his new project aims to counter “a very dark time”: Anna Patton reports from the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, England.

pioneerspost.com

Kay donated a kidney to a stranger, then Tom read about it and did the same; then he set up a project to encourage acts of generosity, that in some cases sparks further acts of kindness. www.positive.news/society/the-...

The generosity experiment

A social experiment is giving away half a million dollars to fund acts of kindness globally – it’s already having a positive impact

positive.news

UK govt announces plan to connect philanthropic donors with local organisations outside of London - " helping spread donations across the country": www.gov.uk/government/n... #philanthropy

Government to unlock philanthropic investment into England's most disadvantaged communities

Government today launches plan to make it easier for the wealthiest in society to give back to communities that need help most

gov.uk

"Demand for solar panels, electric vehicles and heat pumps in Great Britain has leapt since the war began on 28 Feb" www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Record number of homes in Great Britain turn to green energy as fuel prices soar

Iran war drives demand for solar panels, heat pumps and EVs, with energy bills expected to rise 18% from July

theguardian.com

'49% of higher-rate taxpayers said they were “not interested in charities”' - ouch www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Fewer Britons giving to charity, study says, with donations down by £1.4bn

Charities Aid Foundation says giving no longer a ‘deeply embedded cultural norm’ amid rising cost of living

theguardian.com

UK aid cuts "set to be the steepest across the G7, steeper even than the US" and will above all hit women, people with disabilities, children, and people affected by conflict NGO statement via @bondngo.bsky.social www.bond.org.uk/press-releas... #ukaid

One year since UK aid cuts, 97 INGO leaders highlight devastating impact | Bond

One year on from the UK aid cuts, the UK INGO sector has issued a joint statement, reflecting on the devastating consequences of the cuts and calling on

bond.org.uk