Mark Brown

Benefit cuts will hit severely disabled people despite ministers’ claims, say charities Exclusive: Charities say planned universal credit changes fail to account for progressive or fluctuating conditions

“Huge swathes” of severely disabled people will be hit by Universal Credit cuts, contrary to government claims they will be protected. 

My exclusive in today’s Guardian ahead of the vote: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Welcome to the empire, where peace activists are called terrorists, where hospitals are called military bases, where facts are called blood libel, where people opposing genocide are called hateful Nazis, where genocidal soldiers are a protected group and chanting for their death is a hate crime.

Israeli strikes kill at least 60 in Gaza, including nine children <article data-history-node-id="425033" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-strikes-kill-least-60-gaza-including-nine-children" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-strikes-kill-least-60-gaza-including-nine-children" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Israeli strikes kill at least 60 in Gaza, including nine children</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p data-end="81" data-start="0">Hospitals across Gaza report that Israeli air strikes have killed at least 60 people since the early hours of Saturday, reported Al Jazeera.</p> <p data-end="500" data-start="310">One of the deadliest attacks took place in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, where an Israeli strike levelled a residential building, killing at least 20 people—including nine children.</p> <p data-end="602" data-is-last-node data-is-only-node data-start="502">Medical teams say the death toll could rise further as bodies continue to be pulled from the rubble.</p> </div> </div> </article>

Israeli strikes kill at least 60 in Gaza, including nine children - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-strikes-kill-least-60-gaza-including-nine-children

Yes, for my sins. Much that I have Zuck's platforms, it seems one has no option if many of one's friends are on it :-(

Bookshop: Buy books online. Support local bookstores. An online bookstore that financially supports local independent bookstores and gives back to the book community.

PLEASE don’t buy into Amazon’s booksale this week.

They are intentionally trying to eat into profits from Indie Bookstore Day this weekend, a really important annual event for our important community institutions.

Check out your local fave or bookshop.org.

The April 13 crew broadcast just before the explosion is starting now.

Current read: P. D. James’s The Lighthouse. Typical James thriller. Tight-knit closed community, bleak British coast. Illicit sexual relationships. Class differences. Just setting up the victim as a nasty person hated by everyone, giving plenty of suspects. Nicely paced page-turner.

TV documentary on ‘Big John’ the stegosaurus fossil bought at auction by a private collector. Exploring the ethics of private fossil collection. Glaring omission - who has the rights to fossil-rich places like Badlands and Big John site? Wealthy collectors/middlemen interviewed, no Lakota/Sioux.

At the Singapore botanic garden (UNESCO World Heritage site) having a cup of tea with colleague to recover from the overnight flight. At least tea comes in a (small) pot and they add hot water if you ask, but you do have to ask. Check in not till 3pm - time to kill.

There is no evidence Hamas killed members of the Bibas family. Israel is using their death to manufacture consent for genocide. Israel claims Hamas killed two children in the Bibas family but has not offered any evidence. Their death has become another piece of atrocity propaganda Israel is using to justify genocide in Gaza.

There is no evidence Hamas killed members of the Bibas family. Israel is using their death to manufacture consent for genocide. mondoweiss.net/2025/02/ther...

Watched Anne of Green Gables (1985) - two "made for TV" movies. Very good (if set in the wrong period - Edwardian rather than Victorian) but to my English-raised ear, Anne just sounds sarcastic when making her apologies. Making a fool of the adults. I'll have to read the novels now...

Coming across this gem of an old blog post is why I don’t leave social media. The ridiculous use by Gladwell of (Korean) culture to explain plane crashes was brilliantly exposed & added excellent insights to the “DEI as common sense” BS as the racism it is.

Brings to mind issues with using a commercial telco circuit on a network that’s a black box to the customer and just relying on an SLA and no audits - even with contractual obligations you basically have to trust the CSP. Even leasing a backup circuit there’s no guarantee it’ll use a different cable

Looks like it'll be an exciting last few days of the sumo championship. Lead contender is Kinpozan from Kazahkstan with 2 losses, followed by two Mongolians and two Japanese each with 3 losses. I'll be rooting for Kirishima, born in a nomadic community whose granddad was a Mongolian wrestling champ.

Israel kills 10 in West Bank raid as 120 bodies found in Gaza over two days Israeli attacks on occupied West Bank intensify as Trump’s UN pick says Israel has ‘biblical right’ to the territory.

Israeli forces block ambulances from entering Jenin and its refugee camp during "Operation Iron Wall," leaving Palestinians "bleeding out in the streets" as at least 10 are killed and dozens wounded.

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Unfortunately he smothered her after suspecting her of infidelity, suspicion stoked by his subordinate. Part of the tragedy of Othello.

Feel an sudden urge to watch a Peter Cushing film - Hound of the Baskervilles or She.

Also referred to as chrysolite - the term was originally used to refer to yellow/green-coloured gems in general, later to peridot specifically. Mentioned in Shakespeare’s Othello “If heaven would make me such another world Of one entire and Perfect chrysolite, I'd not have sold her for it.”

An archeological revolution transforms our image of human freedoms | Aeon Essays A revolution in archaeology is transforming our picture of past populations and the scope of human freedoms

".. the genocide of Indigenous populations – a direct consequence of the planetary revolt against freedom, in the past 500 years – is naturalised as a perennial absence of people.

@davidwengrow.bsky.social

M̶e̶r̶r̶y̶ ̶C̶h̶r̶i̶s̶t̶m̶a̶s̶

Bought a PD James to read over the holidays with a glass of port - Death in Holy Orders. Another wind-swept English coastal location beloved of James. Up the A12 too - familiar old ground, at least as far as Woodbridge. (Never been all the way up to Lowestoft but used to love Suffolk/Norfolk.)

Maybe on a par with the 1928 Banana Massacre of United Fruit Company workers, with death estimates ranging widely from 45-2,000.

Totally agree re Elsevier. Also avoid DRM like the plague.

I just want to point out that this is the single best write up of Syria's current military-political landscape that exists anywhere right now. That includes everything published so far by all the fancy D. C. think tanks, policy institutes, universities, newspaper and television explainers, etc.

JR Kyushu trains seem to use wooden trim quite a bit. Even commuter trains have plywood bases to the seat upholstery.

On the “Mizuho” service from Hakata to Kobe this morning. Reclining seats are nice and wide, braille seat numbers on the grab handle, stowable cup holder, wooden trim. Nice touches.

On the single-track branch between Kashii and Saitozaki, Fukuoka. Only partial electrification but they replaced the old DMU with an EMU that uses battery on the sections without power - smoother and quieter. Each station has a cute mascot. Even branch lines get some love.

“..the truth is that the idea of a British liberal democracy is unravelling before our eyes. When the guardians of the liberal order, of the rule of law and humanitarianism, are unmasked as charlatans - as is the case with both Starmer and Biden - the forces of darkness rush in to fill the void.”

Very true. Just having the endorsements to strap on, say, a Piper Meridian without previous TP experience doesn't mean it's a good idea! Legally permissible does not equal "good to go". Maybe folks don't realise that...

Easy to diss private pilots but has affected pros as well whenever there's been a step-change in performance - training is key. MU-2 was a killer until FAA mandated type certificate. Piston airline pilots had trouble transitioning to the 727. Mil types too - Hawker Fury, Supermarine Scimitar...