Helen Kane

Ladies & Gentlemen, without further ado, let us present to you the 550 year old Arbour Oak in Wollaton Park, Nottingham

Plans to leave refugees in a state of perpetual uncertainty about where and if they can rebuild their lives are not just performative cruelty, they are counterproductive to integration and the economy. It doesn’t have to be like this - 1/2

Scientists find hidden antibiotic 100x stronger against deadly superbugs A team of scientists discovered a hidden antibiotic 100 times stronger than existing drugs against deadly superbugs like MRSA. The molecule had been overlooked for decades in a familiar bacterium. It…

British and Australian chemists have discovered a powerful new antibiotic called pre-methylenomycin C lactone, hiding in a well-known soil bacterium. This molecule kills drug-resistant bacteria without triggering resistance. buff.ly/YlXaONo
#ShareGoodNewsToo

UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.

I came to this country as a child refugee. No English, no certainty, no idea what my life could become. Britain gave me refuge.

Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.

A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Incredibly sad to learn of the death of Baroness Helen Newlove. She will be an enormous loss to politics, missed by all the victims and survivors she worked so hard to support and champion, and of course most acutely by her family and friends.

May her memory forever be a blessing ❤️

But that is not enough. No.10 should never have been in a position to install Gibb in the first place. It shouldn't control the board membership, the DG appointment, or the purse strings. What's required is genuine independence for the BBC.

Yes! So this!

New York is a-changin'.

Zohran Mamdani: meteoric rise of New York’s visionary new mayor Charismatic and relatable, the 34-year old energized voters – and provided a blueprint for other progressives to follow

Lovely to wake to the news that Zohran Mamdani won the New York Mayor election!
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

C'mon, New York! You've got this!

(Listen volume up ⬆️ for a banger of a song too.)

Tributes paid after death of Mary McGee, who helped end Ireland’s ban on contraception Mother-of-four brought legal case against government after customs seized her contraceptives package from UK

ICYMI This is an interesting reminder of the lengths women had to go to fight against Catholic Ireland in 1972. Mary McGee, the heroine who fought to end Ireland's ban on contraception. (it took more than 10 yrs more for "unmarried couples")
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Calm and early snow scene in Norway. Remember to take a breath 🤗🫂

🌿☕Morning🌞

Hverdagslykke is Norwegian for everyday happiness & contentment in daily life

Like a warm cup of ☕, taking a deep breath, a walk in nature, having family time

A cultural concept encouraging being present in life's routines rather than major events to be happy

@susiedent.com #etymology

♥️ Billie Eilish announced that she would be donating $11.5 million of earnings from her "Hit Me Hard & Soft" tour to various organizations dedicated to food equity, climate justice, reducing carbon pollution, & combating the climate crisis. www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainmen...

PB The voice of a part is very important to you, isn't it? PS I'm never happy until I have found the physical individuality of a part, which includes the voice, I suppose. I've got quite a useful, strong and variable voice, and quite a good ear both for regional dialects and for mannerisms of speech, which is probably just as well because I'm not very versatile physically: I'm quite short and I haven't got a very useful face. A critic very kindly wrote of me once that the six parts I played in one play were nicely differentiated vocally, but that I couldn't change my face, which was that of a worried hamster.

PB PS Do you enjoy doing situation comedies? Oh yes, except that the half-hour episodes come round so quickly, once a week; and in Fawlty Towers I never felt ready to do it every Sunday night. But John Cleese gave me great courage. It was rather like working with a live machine-gun which you try to keep pointing away from you. But you feel you've got something to bash against and that's very comforting. Leonard Rossiter's the same.

PS Well. A trivial example. I'm an aide-de-camp and I have to come in and say to the commanding officer, 'Good morning, sir. Here is the report from Major Smith. In it you will see that he estimates the enemy will be with us at approximately eight hundred hours tomorrow morning.' Now. Who am I? I am Lieutenant Bloggs. Which probably means that I have been trained to keep a stiff upper lip and not to show emotion of any kind. What do I want? (At Uta's classes you're taught always to look for a verb, never for a quality or an emotion.) I may want to do my duty, or to avoid showing fear, or perhaps I want my breakfast. What is the obstacle? Perhaps the CO is in a bad mood, perhaps I'm frightened of him or of the impending attack. So what do I do? I probably come in and mutter the line as quickly as possible and get out. It'll be over in two seconds but it will be true and at least it won't be over-acted. If you try for emotion, try to feel, it's a sure way of cutting off emotion altogether. Acting is doing.

Went back to Prunella Scales's contribution to Barkworth's "About Acting" today. Not just because it is immensely funny and charming, but for the most unfussy, practical, and profound description of a proper acting process ever captured in print.

Huge condolences to Sam and her family and friends.

Yay. Priceless. The right column at the right time. And a gleefully English two fingers to the haters.

He continued: "I have long thought that in some cases, university actually degrades young people. It gives them too much freedom at a time when they don't know what to do with it, blunts the work ethic and gets them into bad habits."

More politicians who don’t value education unless it makes them rich. Why do we have to endure this recycled ‘rip-off degrees’ narrative every single year? It’s as lazy as it is wrongheaded, but this time it comes with an added dash authoritarian paternalism. inews.co.uk/news/politic...

A set of eight rectangular cookies arranged on a square white plate against a dark wooden background. Each cookie is inspired by a wallpaper design by Morris & Co. The patterns represented feature different floral and leaf shapes in shades of baby blue, soft pink, leafy green, mustard yellow, cream, and dark grey.

Today is National Biscuit Day, and it’s about time that I populated this account with biscuit (cookie) sets from the past few years. Here are some of my favourites. 🧵

First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.

Mandatory ID cards are a terrible, terrible idea
iandunt.substack.com/p/id-cards-a...

Definitely. I'm sick of the current framing in the press and on TV. I think lots of people want something positive and hopeful that they can help make work.

But at least it opens up the discussion, makes people think about the possibilities and start to ask why can't we have this?

So anyway, turns out plasma in menstrual blood can completely heal wounds in 24 hours.

hudson.org.au/news/womb-to...

We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech. Efforts by leaders to pressure artists, journalists, and companies with retaliation for their speech strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country. Last week, Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after the government threatened a private company with retaliation, marking a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation. In an attempt to silence its critics, our government has resorted to threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives, and entertainers across the board. This runs counter to the values our nation was built upon, and our Constitution guarantees. We know this moment is bigger than us and our industry. Teachers, government employees, law firms, researchers, universities, students and so many more are also facing direct attacks on their freedom of expression. Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country. We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power – because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. This is the moment to defend free speech across our nation. We encourage all Americans to join us, along with the ACLU, in the fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights.

A graphic listing the names of the more than 400 signers of the ACLU's letter condemning the federal government's retaliation against Jimmy Kimmel. For the full list of signatories, visit aclu.org/kimmel-letter-bk

Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after our government threatened a private company with retaliation, marking a dark moment for free speech in our nation.

More than 400 artists across our nation signed on to say: We refuse to be silenced by those in power.

🚨NEW: "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" just dropped its first response to ABC, FCC chair, and Disney firing Jimmy Kimmel.

Trump ain't sleeping tonight. 🤣

This is a must-watch. 🔥

A soft floofy labradoodle in a deep soft sleep

Some soft floofiness for your exhausting TL

New study: British attitudes to immigrants shifts with relatable messaging A Cambridge study shows personal, value-based stories about EU migrants can sharply boost British support for immigration

Westminster assumes minds can’t be changed on immigration. This Cambridge study proves them wrong ⤵️

@eastangliabylines.co.uk

Letter from Ed Davey to Keir Starmer condemning Elon Musk for inciting violence and urging unity to defend democracy.

I've written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, urging them to join me in condemning Elon Musk's dangerous remarks inciting violence yesterday.

As leaders, we must stand together and make clear Musk will face serious consequences for these actions.

To which end, I highly commend the moral clarity of this excellent article by @rfhaviland.bsky.social @bylinesnetwork.co.uk bylines.scot/politics/sta...

reposting with alt text because this feels incredibly significant. the right-wing disinfo machine means a lot of the people grieving Charlie Kirk never heard any of the things he said that would have tarnished his brand as Guy Who Just Wants to Have Dialogue Across the Aisle