The fallout from the collapse of this glacier - a torrent of mud surging down the valley - killed hundreds of people. Gone, in a flash. Those people were wiped out by anthropogenic climate change. Our governments are simply not responding quickly enough to this disaster which is already upon us.

Nahel Belgherze@wxnb.bsky.social · 3d ago

An incredibly well-timed Landsat 9 pass captured the effects of yesterday’s catastrophic glacier collapse near the Nepal–Tibet border. The event was so massive that it was detected by seismometers around the world.

Data centres are insane. What are we doing?! Two planned datacentres will have higher UK carbon emissions than ExxonMobil, analysis finds www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Two planned datacentres will have higher UK carbon emissions than ExxonMobil, analysis finds

Exclusive: Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire sites predicted to emit 4.5m tonnes a year when fully running

theguardian.com

A person commenting on Facebook is enough for this Birmingham Live journalist to make their headline about residents wanting to move because of possible 20mph speed limits on residential roads. This is not serious journalism.

Martin Price@mrmjprice.bsky.social · last wk.

Point of order to the journalist: West Midlands Police famously won't enforce the 20mph speed limit.

There has been a significant breakdown of anti-racism norms in British politics and it’s impossible not to see a connection with how X has changed as a platform and the unwillingness of gatekeepers in Westminster to speak up.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · last wk.

This is the quality of online discourse behind inventing "Yookay" as a pejorative for Britain & ethnic minorities who think they are British. But we now have peers & MPs starting to use it bsky.app/profile/sund...

Reasons why we can’t simply build more prisons. Example 1: ‘former workers have described under-staffing, inadequate training and seeing specialist officers called in to deal with serious incidents on numerous occasions.’ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Waitrose in Solihull lost £100k of stock this week after their refrigeration units failed in extreme temperatures. Two days later, their vegetable and meat/dairy isles are largely empty. This is what a climate emergency looks like.

The UK justice system is not soft. We lock up more people as a proportion of our population & lock up people for longer than the majority of Western Europe. However, our justice system is massively struggling. We need to counter the dominant public narrative that harsher sentences = better. It’s not

Deeply frustrated by the whole discussion around the prison crisis. We have politicians and media who don’t understand the system, make false statements and muddy the waters for victims and the general public. This pattern has been played out over decades. It doesn’t make the public safer.

The only explanation for MPs making this change is that most of them are corrupt as hell and busy stuffing their pockets with money.

Very weird to be living for weeks through what has so far been the worst UK drought since records began and for the Prime Minister to have still said absolutely nothing about it

Absolutely hate this development in Birmingham City centre.

Arron Banks is smack bang in middle of latest Farage scandal, threatening & surveillance journalists & the absence of reporting on his previous form in this area is…well, what? Answers on a postcard, please. It’s not me who’s being gaslit here. It’s anyone with eyes.

UK Politics News // Papernaut@ukpolitics.papernaut.co · 3w ago

THE GUARDIAN: Arron Banks reportedly commissioned investigators to scrutinise a Sunday Times journalist after scrutiny of Reform UK and Nigel Farage’s finances - an unsettling response to reporting on wealthy donors and political power. - by Geraldine McKelvie

Litter worries ahead of major athletics event. Birmingham on the European stage but the area of the main venue neglected and filthy. This is not how to promote our city. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Litter worries in Perry Barr ahead of European Athletics Championships

Ahead of the championships beginning in Perry Barr, some residents say they are ashamed of the area.

bbc.co.uk

What we should grasp is that this is what Trump is *for*. It's why fossil fuel companies and the ultra-rich backed him. The kleptocracy, the cruelty, the culture wars, all these, while real & grim enough, distract us from seeing the true purpose of his presidency. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Trump administration to pay German firm $1.22bn to cut offshore wind leases

Agreement with RWE is fifth deal Trump team has made with energy companies, offering payouts to give up projects

theguardian.com

The Midlands Rail Hub is a long-touted project of vital importance to the future of rail travel in the city and wider region. 🧵

Spending a good chunk of the day challenging some of the hysteria doing the rounds on Meta platforms around the Midland Rail Hub consultation. Pause and slow down people. This is essential public transport infrastructure, decades in the waiting.

I should be surprised but I’m not. It’s confounding how Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Police have entertained this group for so long with no meaningful action against them.

Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 4w ago

Leaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.

Why are the BBC indulging Reform yet again?

Whilst the cost of living crisis continues to spiral, with food and fuel prices soaring, so do global oil and gas companies profits. Shell has today announced it's profits have more than doubled. This is obscene. www.reuters.com/business/ene...

Shell profit more than doubles to $9.8 billion, second-highest on record, as Iran war lifts prices

Shell's ​net profit more than doubled from last year to $9.84 billion in the second quarter, beating expectations, helped by ‌higher energy prices and increased market volatility during the Middle Eas...

reuters.com

Big new story from @annaisaac.bsky.social. Cottrell transferred $2m to his mother before she made Reform & Tice donations. The even bigger question now is where did Cottrell’s money come from? And this is where I think a very big problem lies.. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Revealed: George Cottrell transferred $2m to his mother days before her donations to Reform UK

Exclusive: Sources say Fiona Cottrell told bankers the transfers, received 24-72 hours before her donations to Reform, came from her son

theguardian.com

Regret to report that the Sri Lanka-based Facebook nostalgia industry has started RESPECT season early this year. “Life in Britain” was previously building #numbers as “Xiaoyang Grebentsov” until last November, if you want some idea of how this bollocks works.

But doesn’t provide any alternative solution to the prison capacity crisis. The Reform response quotes is utterly clueless too. ‘Badenoch calls for emergency legislation to stop early release scheme’ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Badenoch calls for emergency legislation to stop early release scheme

Last week Andy Burnham announced he was pausing early release plans for September after backlash from survivors and victims.

bbc.co.uk

When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.

A machine for making us lonelier and stupider seems a little harsh, but then again www.ft.com/content/bdb3...

We should be marching on Downing Street for action. "The agency’s latest modelling suggests that by the middle of the century, Britain could endure long stretches of 40C days, with temperatures hitting 45C." www.ft.com/content/bde8...

Met Office chief Penny Endersby: ‘There is not going to be a usual summer’

The head of the UK’s national weather service on this year’s multiple heatwaves, the net zero backlash and why geoengineering is not a panacea

ft.com

Just wondering when we’re going to wake up to the impact of our man made climate emergency www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Firefighters battle Madrid blaze, as thousands evacuated in France and Spain

Authorities face the "worst fire in the history of the region", Madrid officials say, as French firefighters battle a blaze heading towards Bordeaux.

bbc.co.uk

I've ready some pretty odd Telegraph opinion pieces in my time, but this might be the oddest. I wonder just what it is about Wes Streeting and Chris Bryant that makes the author believe they're somehow just not macho enough for government.

Arrgghhh. I get so frustrated with media discussions on the criminal justice system. It’s unfair to ask victims to reflect on a complex justice system. One thing is true.. we lock up more people in this country than most other European countries. We have also seen significant sentence inflation.

No arrivals by small boats for the last 10 days now. As of yesterday, 12,469 people had arrived so far this year across the Channel, down over 11,000 (47%) on the same time last year. More than 10% down on 2023 as well, which was when crossings were, by comparison to other years, lower.

None of these measures will be effective. Meanwhile, Paris has made the streets in front of 300 schools permanently car free. Not all cities value the children of their communities equally.

Six Birmingham schools set for new road safety measures

Roads near the schools are set for work such as speed humps and yellow lines to boost safety.

bbc.co.uk