Dr Steven Di Costa 🍉

Cover image of Jherek Bischoff's Christmas album, featuring his face painted to look like a corpse wrapped in plastic, wearing a santa hat.

'Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire Walk With Me"

Your festive reminder that Jherek Bischoff has an entire Christmas album in the style of the Twin Peaks soundtrack🦉

In a climate of increasing hostility towards trans and gender non-conforming people it's never been more important to stand up for the rights of everyone to go about their lives in freedom and dignity without fear of violence or harassment.

Coverage of the refugee proposals demonstrates why we have such a broken political system. Endless focus on left-wing anger and right-wing support. Basically nothing on whether the reforms will work. They will not, which is why we'll still be here having the same debate in three years.

A Government of cowards.

Rather than tackle inequality - they've gone for pensioners, disabled people and now it's people fleeing war and persecution.

They can't get away with this.

Join.greenparty.org.uk

Carrie Fisher looking less than sober while singing a song during the Star Wars Holiday Special.

A visibly off-her-t¡ts Carrie Fisher singing a (terrible) song at the finale.

The whole thing is on YouTube which mercifully allows you to skip bits.

Happy Life Day!!

The four members of the Wookie family from the Star Wars Holiday Special, including Chewbacca

A fifteen minute sequence where the Wookie family talks to each other in Wookie language WITH NO SUBTITLES.

A four armed droid that looks like Martha Stewart standing over a cooking pot

A four-armed droid with a cooking show. Her name is Gormaanda.

Screenshot of Boba Fett riding a large alien creature, from the animated sequence in the Star Wars Holiday Special

An animated sequence with the first appearance of Boba Fett!

Itchy the wookie with a metallic contraption on his head

Chewbacca’s dad (whose name is Itchy), watching VR p🌽rn through a mind control headset…

Bea Arthur surrounded by aliens in the Star Wars Holiday Special

✨ Bea Arthur singing a show tune in the Mos Eisley cantina (apparently she runs it?)

Screenshot of the main cast of the Star Wars Holiday Special from the final sequence.

HAPPY LIFE DAY✨

…from a visibly wasted Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford wishing he was literally anywhere else, and all the crew!

If you’ve never seen it, the Star Wars Holiday Special is a cursed abomination of TV that you must watch.

It’s about an in-universe holiday called ‘Life Day’ and includes:

Eye contact is fine, just don’t stare at them constantly, especially when they’re testing how close they can get to you.

Throw food into an open space (nuts, seeds, or easy-to-access bird food like dried meal worms or suet pellets)

Keep a polite distance, no sudden moves, and don’t stare at them.

Over time they will trust you more and more, and come closer, but you can’t rush it.

Israeli soldiers speak out on killings of Gaza civilians IDF soldiers tell documentary of opening fire unprovoked and arbitrary designations of who was an enemy

Bracing and necessary read.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…

This piece is as good as people say it is. Read it to appreciate that writing isn't just about content, but style. AI can't do this.

Front page of the New York Post. The headline reads The Red Apple, and it’s accompanied by a composite image of a triumphant Zohran Mamdani. His photorealistic head is on the body of a soviet propaganda style worker holding up a hammer and sickle. The whole page is against an art deco skyline of New York. Everything looks cool as fuck, despite the paper’s clear intention to frighten people.

New York Post (unintentionally) making the most joyful celebration cover 💪 🥰

The rise of global boycotts against Israel’s genocide in Gaza From streets to supermarkets, global boycotts for Gaza have grown as a fragile ceasefire holds for now.

From streets to supermarkets, global boycotts for Gaza have grown as a fragile ceasefire holds for now.

Gaza health chief says 170,000 wounded await care amidst hospital crisis <article data-history-node-id="430268" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/gaza-health-chief-says-170000-wounded-await-care-amidst-hospital-crisis" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/gaza-health-chief-says-170000-wounded-await-care-amidst-hospital-crisis" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Gaza health chief says 170,000 wounded await care amidst hospital crisis</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>Director-General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Munir al-Barsh, on Thursday said&nbsp;more than 400 surgeries are needed to save lives and nearly&nbsp;170,000 wounded Palestinians are awaiting medical treatment.&nbsp;</p> <p>The health sector in Gaza is facing an unprecedented resource crisis, threatening hospitals' ability to continue providing services, Al Jazeera quoted Barsh as saying.&nbsp;</p> <p>He said that there is an urgent need to bring in medical aid trucks to save the lives of the wounded and sick.</p> </div> </div> </article>

Gaza health chief says 170,000 wounded await care amidst hospital crisis - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/gaza-health-chief-says-170000-wounded-await-care-amidst-hospital-crisis

It's worth reiterating that independent creators are getting debanked for the same content

Disappearing people, disappearing morals – how two years has changed Gaza and Israel | Orly Noy There can be no healing until the world stares into and acknowledges the void torn open by this conflict, says Israeli journalist Orly Noy

"It feels as if everything has vanished. Not only the tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza erased without graves, without records, as if they had never existed – so many other things have been hollowed out: basic conceptions of morality, decency, compassion, humanity, hope, future."

Zack Polanski: I'm a Jewish Mancunian. Our grief cannot be used to silence protest The answer to bigotry cannot be to shut down protest

inews.co.uk/opinion/zack...

Cass Review does not guide care for trans young people Good medicine is guided by the values of the patient, not those of a clinician, politician or commentator. The Cass Review, lacking expertise and compromised by implicit stigma and misinformation, doe...

“Evidence‐based medicine has three pillars: (i) appraisal of research evidence, (ii) real‐world clinical expertise, and (iii) individual patient values and preferences. The Review's failures across all three are evident.”

Oh dear, Cass.

www.mja.com.au/journal/2025...

This is grim & dangerous over reach.

This is a government that have lost the moral argument & are still selling arms to Israel. Now further cracking down on dissent.

Absolutely the opposite of what they should be doing - so of course this is what the Labour Government choose.

Our horror at the genocide in Gaza, at the mass murder of civilians on Oct 7 2023, and at today's atrocity in Manchester, comes in each case from the same, inherent part of our shared humanity. We need to assert that shared humanity as loudly as possible, and in as many practical ways as we can.

literally no correlation here except to massage the notion that the cause of palestinian liberation is antisemitic and to manufacture consent for genocide from jews (which, itself, places jews in harm’s way).

Future access to the Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds Inviting feedback from pond users, the local community, and stakeholders on how the Kenwood Ladies’, and Highgate Men’s ponds should operate in the future.

If you use, or would like to use, the Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds, it is absolutely worth your time to respond to this consultation.

www.hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is

🔊 'A number of the elements of this proposal are things that Israel has repeatedly and publicly said it is not at all prepared to do.' Listen to the Reuters World News podcast for more on the details of Trump's 20-point Gaza plan reut.rs/3Ir2vLc

Photo with Keir Starmer and copy that reads: RECOGNITION OF A PALESTINIAN STATE IS A HOLLOW GESTURE WITHOUT MEANINGFUL ACTION TO END ISRAEL'S GENOCIDE, APARTHEID & OCCUPATION

Recognition is no doubt significant but it will be a hollow gesture if the UK does not also seek to end Israel's genocide, illegal occupation, and system of apartheid against the Palestinian people.

🧵1/3

20 days.

We have just overtaken the Lib Dems both in polling and in members.

We're just getting started.

Join.greenparty.org.uk

As an Australian I welcome this positive step in the right direction. It is FAR from enough.