@junesim63@mstdn.social cover
@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar

junesim63

@[email protected]

Retired researcher living in Nottinghamshire, England. Hull native.

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

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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@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"Globalise the intifada” isn’t a call for harming Jews, though western establishments would love you to think it is. It’s a call for showing solidarity with Palestinians before it is too late for them, and for us. It is about throwing sand in the cogs of a machinery of oppression before it grows too powerful to be confronted"
Jonathan Cook

Western elites fear a 'globalised intifada' because they are its targets, not Jews
https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/western-elites-fear-a-globalised

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"Feel-good news to chase away those winter blues. Here are 13 reasons to celebrate!"

From the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Wins for wildlife in 2025
https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/wins-for-wildlife-in-twenty-twenty-five

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"The settlers are trying to provoke the local people into protecting themselves, but if they do the army and police will storm the community and arrest everyone,” said one of the Israeli volunteers, Amir Pansky, a retired Israeli army major"

The volunteers putting their bodies between Israel settlers and a Palestinian village | Palestine | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/20/the-volunteers-putting-their-bodies-between-israel-settlers-and-a-palestinian-village?CMP=GTUK_email

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"I am putting all the employers we bargain with – from Reform UK-run local councils to Wes Streeting’s Department of Health and Social Care – on notice: Unison will be fighting without hesitation to win for members. Our size and resources are without parallel among trade unions in this country. From this point on, those great assets will be geared towards transforming the lives of public-sector workers"
Andrea Egan, new General Secretary of Unison


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/19/new-head-unison-politicians-unions-labour

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"In an interview with the Guardian, he said the rising overall welfare bill was “unsustainable fiscally and economically”

That's absolute bollocks. What's unsustainable is the huge and rising inequality in our society. Invest in our young people and tax the greedy.


Alan Milburn to review rise in youth minimum wage | Economic policy | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/dec/19/alan-milburn-to-review-rise-in-youth-minimum-wage

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Nottingham City Transport has completed the rollout of all 62 electric single deck buses, marking a major milestone in the company’s transition to a zero-emission fleet. With the recent delivery of the final 14 buses, NCT’s entire city single deck fleet is now fully electric.

Next, the double deckers...

https://www.nctx.co.uk/electric-bus-rollout-complete

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

“Today’s politics is tailor-made for him. Smiles leaking everywhere, mood music, the sales campaign that gets rid of the need for a product. Even the shiftiness. People like to be conned. It reminds them that everything is a game.”

Want to understand the sickness of Britain today? Look no further – a novel explained it all 20 years ago | Aditya Chakrabortty | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/18/sickness-britain-novel-20-years-ago-jg-ballard

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Not that I need an excuse!

Key chemical in dark chocolate may slow down ageing – TwinsUK
https://twinsuk.ac.uk/key-chemical-in-dark-chocolate-may-slow-down-ageing/

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"In the future it is possible that nature will evolve, and some fish may adapt to eat quagga mussels, but ecologists say Lake Geneva will never be the same. “We need to accept at some point, whatever is there – this is a different lake, now,"

‘It’s an open invasion’: how millions of quagga mussels changed Lake Geneva for ever | Invasive species | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/18/invasive-quagga-mussels-lake-geneva-aoe

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Students from Ghana at UK universities say they are in danger of being deported after being stranded by their own government without promised scholarships or tuition fee payments.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/dec/14/ghana-students-uk-universities-face-deportion-funding-crisis?CMP=thelongwave_email

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Good article on the excrescence on our body politic that is Nigel Farage.

‘He was a bully at school, he's a bully now’: the long history of racism allegations against Nigel Farage
https://www.thenerve.news/p/nigel-farage-sweeney-dulwich-college-racism-history-michael-crick-peter-ettedgui

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"..this is not a fight about a mildly mistaken edit where the gap between statements should have been made clear (and it should have been). It is part of a war on the UK and Europe and its culture"
Richard Murphy

When will Labour tell Trump where to go?
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/12/16/88473/

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Some wonderful nature photography from Nature's best science images of 2025.

https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-025-03935-3/index.html

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Interesting analysis of voter preferences and which policies all voters agree on.

Unity and Division in the Public’s Policy Preferences After the 2024 General Election | Political Quarterly
https://politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/unity-and-division-in-the-publics-policy-preferences-after-the-2024-general-election/

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , (edited ) to random

"Two million Palestinians remain in Gaza. If they are to have any hope for the future, their fate must not rest in the hands of a distracted US president who thinks his job is done"

They call it peace, but in storm-tossed Gaza, it looks like purgatory | The Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/international/article/they-call-it-peace-but-in-storm-tossed-gaza-it-looks-like-purgatory

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"Are non-profits like the [Canals and Rivers Trust] (CRT)and Peabody – well-intentioned though their staff may be – fronts for asset speculation and sell-offs in the private sector? And are the CRT’s investment decisions being made by people with those inclinations?"

Alarming report on how live aboard boaters are being ill served by the CRT.

The UK’s Waterways Are Run by Property Developers | Novara Media
https://novaramedia.com/2025/12/11/the-uks-waterways-are-run-by-property-developers

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

A man who heroically tackled and disarmed one of the Bondi Beach gunmen has been identified as father-of-two fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed.

Bondi Beach hero dad who disarmed gunman 'shot twice' in wild struggle - World News - Mirror Online
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/breaking-bondi-beach-hero-dad-36399293?%2F%3F0876087=

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"This is not a government being sabotaged by resident doctors - it’s a government terrified of being exposed at having taken over a broken system and having made choices, consciously, to make it even more brittle."

Excellent as always from The Bear.

Saturday Long Read: The NHS is Collapsing and Labour is Running out of Excuses
https://www.bearlypolitics.co.uk/p/saturday-long-read-the-nhs-is-collapsing

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , (edited ) to random

"Austerity has scarred the UK for the last 14 years. If it wants to finally break free, then it’s time for a radical new approach. And that starts with rethinking how government finances work"

Excellent in the New Statesman re Green Party leader, Zack Polanski's use of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) in a recent interview.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/greens/2025/12/the-case-for-zack-polanskis-economic-plan

Paywall free link here:

https://archive.is/ozcB8

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , (edited ) to random

Nigel Farage was performatively racist at Dulwich College, recalls a contemporary who claims to have heard him sing a song celebrating the Holocaust.

On Dulwich school trips, Nigel Farage and the other smokers took the ‘Belsen Bus’ | The Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/on-dulwich-college-trips-nigel-farage-took-the-belsen-bus

Paywall free link here:

https://archive.is/1TbGo

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"This week, Israel’s defence ministry made clear that this would mark only the first section of a new 5.5bn-shekel (£1.3bn) barrier that will eventually run 300 miles, from the Golan Heights on the Syrian border to the north all the way down to the Red Sea near Eilat. Labelled “Crimson Thread” by the Israeli military, the barrier will split countless Palestinian communities along its route"

Illegal of course, but who will stop them?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/13/new-israeli-barrier-slice-through-precious-west-bank-farmland

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Some good news.

""Remarkably, Nottingham has the second highest bus usage outside of London, following Brighton and Hove, at 130 passenger journeys per head. Bus industry magazine Route One also reported that Nottingham, is one of the few local authorities this year to exceed levels of patronage from 2010"

Nottingham’s buses are second to one! - Transport Nottingham
https://www.transportnottingham.com/nottinghams-buses-are-second-to-one/?utm_name=

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Scientists have produced the most detailed 3D map of almost all buildings in the world. The map, called GlobalBuildingAtlas, combines satellite imagery and machine learning to generate 3D models for 97% of buildings on Earth.

Giant 3D map shows almost every building in the world
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-04036-x

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"In opposition, Labour opposed the abolition of assisted area status. In government, it has made no move towards restoring it. Even worse, it has cut regional economic spending heavily"

There is a fund to create jobs in the poorest areas, and Labour has quietly gutted it. This is what betrayal looks like | Larry Elliott | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/11/labour-economic-policy-struggling-regions-wales

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"While the ongoing ‘flu-nami’ is being invoked as the primary cause of the crisis, this is a convenient scapegoat when the reality is that the situation is the direct result of a longstanding and predictable breakdown in NHS capacity and workforce shortages.”
Vicki Price, President, Society for Acute Medicine

Get vaccinated, wear a mask and don't blame junior doctors.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/dec/11/nhs-bracing-for-worst-ever-winter-crisis-in-next-fortnight-amid-rising-flu-cases

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"[Netanyahu] and Trump mirror one another at every step. They have been taking cues from one another, and supporting each other’s private and governmental rackets. MAGA and Likud have become a mirror image of incestuous, global corruption"


Israel is Sinking into the Abyss of Netanyahu's Dictatorship
https://www.juancole.com/2025/12/sinking-netanyahus-dictatoship.html

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , (edited ) to random

Charity, my arse....

“This investigation confirms one of the worst-kept secrets in Westminster,” said Ami McCarthy, Greenpeace UK’s head of politics. “This self-styled economic think tank is really a lobbying shop for the harmful and polluting industries that fund it, with fossil fuel giants chief among them.”

The Institute of Economic Affairs Banked £640,000 from Oil Giants and Murdoch - DeSmog
https://www.desmog.com/2025/12/10/the-institute-of-economic-affairs-donations-funding-oil-giants-shell-bp-exxon-rupert-murdoch/

georgemonbiot.bsky.social , to random

How many times do we need to point this out? By appeasing the far right, you do not weaken it. You strengthen it. While weakening your own position. There's a vast amount of academic research showing this. But Labour will not listen. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/dec...

Starmer urges Europe’s leaders...

junesim63 ,
@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social
You need to look at who is behind Starmer. Blair, Larry Ellison of Oracle and Mandelson.

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

According to Unicef figures, 9,300 children in Gaza were treated for severe acute malnutrition in October.
In October, about 8,300 pregnant and breastfeeding women were also hospitalised for acute malnutrition.

Shocking. Israel is still not allowing enough food into Gaza.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/09/children-gaza-hospitalised-acute-malnutrition-un-says

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"The Nerve has mapped the political landscape to illustrate who’s for digital ID and who’s against it. And what our research shows is a web of influence that radiates out from Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change. In the ‘for’ camp is a grab bag of people who are mostly associated with Blair. And against it…is everyone else"

If Keir Starmer's digital ID is the question, Tony Blair is the answer
https://www.thenerve.news/p/digital-id-keir-starmer-tony-blair-institute-larry-ellison-oracle-opposition

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Perhaps we should ban public Premier League football matches?

Premier League football matches can be crime hotspots – but community sports centres have the opposite effect
https://theconversation.com/premier-league-football-matches-can-be-crime-hotspots-but-community-sports-centres-have-the-opposite-effect-271483

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"This is the British government’s best chance to cement a series of bogus narratives: that direct-action protest equates to terrorism; that support for the right to protest is identical to support for terrorism; and that the government is the only arbiter of ethical behaviour, even when it is actively colluding in genocide"
Jonathan Cook

Has the British public been tricked about what the Filton trial videos really show?
https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/has-the-british-public-been-tricked

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Some good news.

"In a major boost to research on long COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), the German government has announced that it will provide €500 million (US$582 million) in research funding to support a National Decade Against Post-Infectious Diseases from 2026 to 2036"

Long-COVID research just got a big funding boost: will it find new treatments?
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03904-w

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

" ..the greatest political gift anyone can give to [Farage] is the space that’s created by not attributing the negative impacts of his project in any way or form to him. If the Labour Party and the Conservatives keep treating Brexit like an heirloom too delicate and fragile to handle, Farage gets to keep insisting that its abject failure is down to everyone except him"

The Farage Tax: What The UK Pays For One Man's Ego
https://www.bearlypolitics.co.uk/p/the-farage-tax-what-the-uk-pays-for

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

A new report from Crisis said that an ever depleting supply of social homes meant that housing associations were using strict criteria to choose new tenants, and people on low incomes and in receipt of benefits were having applications denied due to being deemed too risky.

This was so predictable. The answer is to build much more social housing, and compulsorarily purchase long-term empty properties.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/dec/08/people-on-lowest-incomes-being-denied-access-to-social-housing-research-finds

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Superb article.

"History warns us: the erasure of one minority’s rights is a blueprint for the erosion of everyone’s. When politicians declare that trans people are a threat to children, or women, or to the imaginary moral fabric of society, they construct a public enemy that does not exist"

Trans rights: the shame of a state punching down - TetleysTLDR
https://www.tetleystldr.com/tetleystldr-blog/trans-rights-the-shame-of-a-state-punching-down

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

A great good news story on how the RSPB transformed Wallasea Island in Essex from farmland into a nature reserve using excess soil from the Crossrail project tunnels in London.

Muddy marvellous: celebrating 10 years of transformation at Wallasea Island
https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/muddy-marvellous-celebrating-ten-years-of-transformation-at-wallasea-island

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"Both judges and juries bring biases to the courtroom. The critical difference is that juries are more diverse than a single judge. Today, 89% of judges are white, 61% are men, and around a third attended private school. Fewer than 10% come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds"

Jurors aren’t impartial – that’s exactly why they are so important to justice
https://theconversation.com/jurors-arent-impartial-thats-exactly-why-they-are-so-important-to-justice-271322

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

A public relations firm for major U.S. polluters worked to dismantle EU laws that require large corporations to make plans for cutting emissions and appear to have succeeded as the EU has voted to water down its environmentlaws.

‘Divide and Conquer’: Inside the Oil and Gas Strategy to Thwart EU Green Laws - DeSmog
https://www.desmog.com/2025/12/04/divide-and-conquer-inside-the-oil-and-gas-strategy-to-thwart-eu-green-laws/

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Fascinating experiment on body consciousness.

"If information about our own body is almost always admitted into awareness, this supports the idea that maintaining a stable, embodied self may be one of the core functions of conscious experience. This perspective ultimately highlights a key gap between humans and current artificial systems, challenging the idea that AI – at least in its current forms – could resemble human consciousness"


https://theconversation.com/why-our-physical-bodies-may-be-a-core-part-of-conscious-experience-new-research-270836

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"Equipped with Azure’s near-limitless storage capacity and computing power, Unit 8200 had built an indiscriminate system allowing its intelligence officers to collect, play back and analyse the content of cellular calls of an entire population"

Irish authorities asked to investigate Microsoft over alleged unlawful data processing by IDF | Microsoft | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/04/irish-authorities-asked-to-investigate-microsoft-over-alleged-unlawful-data-processing-by-idf

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"Asked if the WI was facing legal threats, Green said it had received fewer than 100 pieces of communication on the issue, many from the same people or outside the organisation, but confirmed there had been “reference to legal challenge”."

Rowling strikes again?

Women’s Institute will no longer accept trans women as members from April | Women's Institute | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/03/womens-institute-no-longer-accept-trans-women-members-april

@Tattie@eldritch.cafe avatar Tattie , to random

Varifocal sellers: so right at the top of the lens we'll put your distance prescription, and at the bottom your reading prescription.
Me: ok, cool, so what about the middle?
VS: well it'll be a gentle gradient from one to the other, neither one thing not the other
Me: so what would that be good for?
VS: well, it'll kinda be not great for anything, but not unbearably bad either
Me: ...
VS: just wear them for like a week and you'll get accustomed to it, I promise!

junesim63 ,
@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar

@Tattie
I can see from all distances and sides with my varifocals. They were very expensive, but I only have to move my eyes. I've had varifocals for 40 years and wouldn't be without them. I'd change your optician.

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

"This part of Midtown will soon resemble a huddle of bloated bankers squeezed into stilettos, casting ever longer shadows down the canyons of Manhattan and obliterating views of the city’s cherished peaks, while crushing a generation of handsome, usable buildings beneath them."

An eco obscenity: Norman Foster’s steroidal new skyscraper is an affront to the New York skyline | Architecture | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/dec/03/eco-obscenity-norman-foster-skyscraper-jp-morgan-new-york

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Yet another dodgy Reform UK member.

Key aide to Nigel Farage was frontman for Premier League billionaire’s betting syndicate, lawsuit claims | Nigel Farage | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/dec/02/key-aide-to-nigel-farage-was-frontman-for-premier-league-billionaires-betting-syndicate-lawsuit-claims?CMP=GTUK_email

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Fascinating article on how fonts/typefaces affect perception of what is written.

It’s not you – some typefaces feel different
https://theconversation.com/its-not-you-some-typefaces-feel-different-270192

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

Cowards.

"Girlguiding had been facing legal action from a parent over its policy allowing transgender girls to join as members and trans women to volunteer in roles reserved for women, claiming it “exposes girls to harassment”, the Times reported"

Is this another Rowling funded action?

Trans girls banned from joining Girlguiding | Guides | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/02/trans-girls-banned-girlguiding-supreme-court?CMP=bsky_gu

@junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , to random

My Labour MP, James Naish, has just sent me this report on a round table he held recently with local trans people in Rushcliffe. Well done to him for at least listening. ( I contacted him earlier this year about the erosion of trans rights.)

https://www.jamesnaish.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Trans-roundtable-report-FINAL.pdf