Climate Change

How a COVID-19 survivor funded a crucial Indigenous gathering

— A British farmer donated £100,000 to fund a meeting of Brazil’s Indigenous people in the Amazon, motivated by his climate concerns, his near-death experience with COVID-19, and his respect for Indigenous wisdom.

Front Pages

Front pages 📰 31 July 2023

— We take a look at the front pages of the main newspapers and magazines today in the UK and beyond.

Public Health

How austerity made the UK more vulnerable to COVID

— Evidence shows austerity has wide-ranging consequences for health.

COMMENT

Extreme weather events are exactly the time to talk about climate change

— Record-breaking heatwaves across the northern hemisphere have been linked to climate change, making extreme weather events more likely and intense. Most people are concerned about climate change. The challenge now is to convert this concern into action.

Cost of Living Crisis

Channel 4’s shocking Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat owes much to Swift and his gruesome satire

— Channel 4’s stealthy documentary on engineering human meat from the poor parallels Swift’s suggestion that people should eat the children of Ireland’s most destitute.

UK Immigration Policy

‘Performative cruelty’: The hostile architecture of the UK government’s migrant barge

— Semi-carceral facilities accommodating irregular migrants are designed to be hostile spaces that expose people to substandard conditions and keep them on the move, detached from wider society.

UK Politics

Goldsmith on Government’s green policies: Gove is a monster, Shapps is backward, Sunak not interested

— In a recent interview, Zac Goldsmith, former international environment minister, criticised fellow Tories for their handling of climate commitments.

OPINION

Better a diamond with a flaw than a stone without

— The Tories’ lies, corruption, and incompetence exposed, and their plan to call an early election to avoid losing more voters revealed. How about their disastrous leaders: Johnson, Truss, and Sunak?

Net Zero

Sunak wants to balance Net Zero with pragmatism

— Rishi Sunak supports Net Zero but worries about green costs. The PM backs the ban on petrol and diesel cars but wants to invest in nuclear and wind.

Social Media

Elon Musk rebrands Twitter as X, ditching the blue bird

— Twitter has a new logo and name: X. Elon Musk, its billionaire owner, wants to create a super app. Some users like it, some don’t.

Immigration

Rwanda plan is in legal limbo, but history shows such migration deals are unlikely to disappear

— The UK government wants to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, but the court says it’s illegal. The deal is part of a wider policy to deter irregular migration and make deals with other countries. Similar schemes have been tried before in history.

Climate Change

Greta Thunberg fined for climate protest in Malmö

— Greta Thunberg has been fined for blocking oil trucks in Malmö, Sweden. She claims climate emergency justifies her protest.

COMMENT

In having nothing to say about Rishi Sunak, new Tory MP Steve Tuckwell said it all

— Some people, like Britain’s prime minister, have hideously good luck.

UK Politics

By-election losses are terrible for the Conservatives – but there are glimmers of hope

— The Conservatives lost two more by-elections, and only just held Uxbridge by a whisker. The party faces its worst defeat since 1997 as Sunak lags far behind Starmer. Is there more trouble ahead?

Long COVID

Long COVID’s brain fog: Impact of COVID-19 on memory

— How “brain fog” from Long COVID can be akin to ageing 10 years. A King’s College London study reveals cognitive impairments that can last up to 2 years post-infection.

UK Politics

Labour leads in latest YouGov poll on general election outcome

— A new survey by YouGov shows that more people think Labour will win the next general election than the Conservatives.