Jeremy Rodell

Why insurers worry the world could soon become uninsurable Günther Thallinger, a board member at Allianz, one of the world's biggest insurers, says the climate crisis could make adaptation economically unviable.

"“If this volume just grows even more, we simply have a societal situation that is not bearable anymore because it is just too much risk that is no longer covered,” Thallinger told CNBC..."

whatever politicians pretend to believe about climate, this is what they know

www.cnbc.com/2025/08/08/c...

Millions more appointments as more than 2,000 extra GPs recruited Boost is part of Plan for Change to rebuild the NHS by shifting healthcare from hospitals into the community and ending the 8am scramble.

At the end of July, the government said that it had delivered 4.6 million extra appointments since it came to power, more than double its manifesto pledge of 2 million.
www.gov.uk/government/n...

Co-leaders of UK Progressive Judaism shouted down and mic removed at rally calling for return of hostages. Their crime? Combining their call for return of hostages with call for end to suffering of Palestinians.

Important Jeremy Bowen piece on the massive increase in oppression in the West Bank, and the importance of religion as a motivator/justification for both Jewish extremists and Hamas. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Well done Labour
Well done starmer
Education is the key

Calls for a "huge nationwide wave" of protests in last 48 hours saw about 300 people attend one locally-organised protest in Nuneaton (serious charges in local case) + 19 protests range from 6 peoole (Wolverhampton) with about four more reaching 100-200 people (Altrincham,Canary Wharf)

Total < 2000

Curtis Yarvin’s Plot Against America The reactionary blogger’s call for a monarch to rule the country once seemed like a joke. Now the right is ready to bend the knee.

Yes, it’s right to laugh at these awful people. But they can’t be ignored. Curtis Yarvin has the ear of the powerful tech-bros (including Musk) - and J D Vance. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

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Great piece. But we should have learned from Farage and Trump that laughing at people whose values we despise won’t make their ideas go away.

‘Inciteful’ commentary > “The abandonment of the dying and the shell-shocked [after the 7 July 2005 attacks] works pretty well as a metaphor for the British state’s cowardly handling of the Islamist threat, I think. Bury it deep, then, when something awful happens, as it inevitably will, claim that ‘we did everything we possibly could’, and, if British people get angry that such barbaric fanatics are let into our country in huge numbers, blame those people for causing division and hate.” — Allison Pearson, Daily Telegraph, 8 July > “Anyone else hoping for a military coup?” — Allison Pearson, X, 23 July > “So maybe Lucy Connolly was right after all… In her tweet she called for ‘mass deportation now’ and added: ‘Set fire to all the f---ing hotels full of the b-----ds for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what those families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist so be it.’” — Allison Pearson, Daily Telegraph, 30 July

The Telegraph's Allison Pearson has been, effectively, inciting riots and a military coup. This is one of Britain's biggest newspaper columnists. Via Private Eye

US plans to incinerate $9.7M in USAID contraceptives The Trump administration plans to incinerate more than $9.7 million worth of contraceptives funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that have been lying in a warehouse in Be…

Your tax dollars are going to be spent by Trump to incinerate contraceptives and other medical supplies that you paid for. Welcome to your New World.

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thehill.com/policy/healt...

U.S. Defense Secretary promotes interview in which Christian nationalist Doug Wilson says women shouldn't have the right to vote. Hegseth goes to a Wilson-affiliated church and sends his kids to one of Wilson’s schools. 1/2

Groundbreaking study exposes hidden struggles of ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK A groundbreaking study published in The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion has shed light on the profound and long-lasting challenges faced by people leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses ...

Proud of @humanists.uk's Faith to Faithless team for their work on this groundbreaking study with academic researchers. It confirms what our team sees daily: the immense challenges people leaving high-control religions face, & how with the right support, they can go on to live fulfilling lives.

From the way some talk, you'd think Labour is losing all its voters to Reform. Absolutely not. From @georgeeaton.bsky.social excellent email

We are so getting bombed tonight

Yet the analysis under the headline is excellent. If the headline means one more vaccine sceptic begins to question their beliefs - job done.

It’s actually a great analysis, which explains why the RFK Jr action is such a bad move.

Could RFK Jr's move to pull mRNA vaccine funding be a huge miscalculation? The US is withdrawing $500m for vaccines for diseases like flu and Covid. Health correspondent James Gallagher asks if it's the right call.

Great analysis. Takeaway: mRNA vaccines not a silver bullet, but important addition to arsenal, esp vs new threats, as they have much shorter lead time.
6 million lives saved from COVID, vs tiny number number hit by side effects.
RFK Jr’s move potentially disastrous. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Indeed. But 948k is a helluva number.

Important @samfr.bsky.social conclusion in his excellent piece on radicalisation samf.substack.com/p/the-radica...

Indeed. The huge issue is that the problems, esp economic, are severe and v hard to fix, while trust levels are low. A populist offering better services, no increase in tax, low immigration... will get votes, even though it's impossible to deliver. Dangerous.

"The BBC World Service has compiled material on over 160 cases where children have been shot in Gaza, and found that in 95 cases the child was shot in the head or the chest. In most of these cases the victim was under 12 years old"

They were possible, to a limited degree, but not enough people voted for them, and the current government was so worried about not getting elected that they made a daft promise on tax, which - for very good reasons - they’re now going to break. Main issue: there are no simple solutions w/out growth.

American democracy: shredded as we watch.

Interested to understand why you think that. Pointing out uncomfortable facts doesn’t mean failing to aspire to a better world. It means avoiding fantasy.

Man of the people.

NEW POLL: This is quite the turnaround.

A majority would vote to Remain - and by a long way.

In fact, if you were to remove “don’t know” & “wouldn’t vote”, that’s 64% vs 36% in a referendum.

See: www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

We are completely horrified and sickened by the cynical videos of hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, who are starving and emaciated, that were published this weekend. (1/5)

There is an extreme fringe among pro-Palestine opinion in the UK: 5-6% say the Hamas atrocity was justified. (This is about 1 in 7 of the 35% who primarily sympathise with Palestine). There are quite big Don't Know segments to these justification questions: which can be low knowledge, or mixed views