James Tapper

YouTube video by Wee Goose Wee Goose - Belfast Mentality (Official Music Video)

Still the greatest lyric in the history of hiphop. #WeeGooseLives youtu.be/mMEnqUDon4Y?...

‘At 13, I thought my leukaemia was incurable. But new treatment made me cancer-free’ Almost two thirds of the patients involved in the study now remain disease free, researchers say

Still struggling to get my head around just how fast gene editing research is going. This from @ucl.ac.uk and @greatormondst.bsky.social is another extraordinary step forward www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

Blind woman denied benefits because she attended DWP interview with help of mother Charlotte Easton says she was told that as she had been able to travel to her assessment, she must be able to work

See also: refused for being able to get to the appointment www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

The ‘digital bridge’ that could help the paralysed walk again | The Observer

Around 15 million people worldwide have suffered some sort of injury that has broken the link between brain and body.

Could Prof Grégoire Courtine and his NeuroRestore clinic be the embodiment of hope for them?

Read more as @jamestapper.bsky.social explores:
https://bit.ly/4itcBIU

The ‘digital bridge’ that could help the paralysed walk again | The Observer

I was lucky enough to meet Markus Klementz recently. He lost the use of his legs after an accident and hasn't walked for seven years. Spinal injuries used to be effectively untreatable. Now they aren't and Markus is learning to stand and take a few steps. More here:
observer.co.uk/news/science...

A business that wants to sack its employees within six months doesn’t exactly scream confidence and competence, does it? The claim is they don’t want to get stuck in tribunals. How about being better at recruitment? Or stop trying to make excuses for being bad bosses?

How worried should we be about the curious clusters of Chinese restaurants surrounding our most sensitive military bases?

These 150 metre-long beasts deploy for nine-month periods during which the 260-strong crew munch their way through 75,600 eggs, 19,000kg of potatoes and 54,720 sausages. What isn’t on the menu in the mess, however, is egg fried rice or sweet and sour chicken. Ironic, perhaps, considering there are no fewer than 2.3 Chinese takeaways near the base for every Indian establishment in the same area.

Lost their minds

Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:

Remembering Rachel Cooke | The Observer

Wonderful tribute by @timadamswrites.bsky.social
Rachel was always a wonderful colleague and over the past 14 months, during we experienced a horrendous period at the Guardian together, she became a cherished friend…. /cont. 🧵

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

New satellites will give 30-minute warning of solar storm emergencies | The Observer

Re-upping this piece on why solar storms are not just about pretty lights observer.co.uk/news/science...

Conservation projects abandoned as rich countries retreat from climate fight | The Observer

As nations convene in Belém, @jamestapper.bsky.social explores many have withdrawn from funds for climate mitigation and biodiversity protection, leaving species at risk of extinction.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4hYntyn

Obituary: James Watson, scientist who discovered the double helix | The Observer obituary

‘I don’t need a building named after me. I have the double helix’

✍️ James Tapper on James Watson, scientist who discovered the double helix

https://bit.ly/43koDy3

Fowl play: smugglers cash in as dancing parrots go viral | The Observer

Fowl play: smugglers cash in as dancing parrots go viral

A dark trade in exotic birds is flourishing, driven by avian social media stars

✍️ James Tapper

https://bit.ly/4nJRqDq

The Observer view: political interference at the BBC | The Observer

‘A process of intimidation that the BBC’s supporters have long feared has been playing out behind closed doors is now unfolding in plain sight’

The Observer view: political interference at the BBC

https://bit.ly/4qW3MeA

The truth about impartiality at the BBC And the hysteria of the current "crisis"

The reaction to the Panorama edit has been nothing short of hysterical. Yes the BBC has some impartiality problems. But its biggest isn't the one you think.

New piece from me.

open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

Tories realise deportation policy could lose them loyal v... The draft ‘deportation bill’ may alienate South Asian voters, who have shifted to the Conservatives in recent years

I spoke to James Tapper of the Observer on whether the Conservatives realised that their deportation plan would deport most British Indians, who have been one of the the only groups of voters trending towards the party
observer.co.uk/news/politic...

Tories realise deportation policy could lose them loyal v... The draft ‘deportation bill’ may alienate South Asian voters, who have shifted to the Conservatives in recent years

The draft ‘deportation bill’ may alienate South Asian voters, who have shifted to the Conservatives in recent years, writes @jamestapper.bsky.social.

Read more: https://bit.ly/3JGwGyn

London Councils Face Losing Half Their Share Of Children's Services Funding Some of London’s poorest areas could see their share of funding for children’s services halved under Labour’s plans to reform local government gran...

Some of London’s poorest areas could see their share of the children’s services funding formula halved under Labour’s plans to reform local government grants.

By me, for Politics Home: www.politicshome.com/news/article...

A breakthrough in treating Huntington’s disease.

New hope for sufferers of Huntington’s disease after the discovery of a treatment which could radically slow the disease.

Listen to today's Sensemaker wherever you get your podcasts to learn more:
lnk.to/sb5T8tBS

Mum died of Huntington’s... this breakthrough changes eve... A professor battling to slow the disease that killed writer Charlotte Raven shared his good news with her daughter

The news came on my 21st birthday. It was crazy. He said: ‘That’s the way the universe works sometimes, isn’t it?’

A professor battling to slow the disease that killed writer Charlotte Raven shared his good news with her daughter

https://bit.ly/4pZjfdo

Mum died of Huntington’s... this breakthrough changes eve... A professor battling to slow the disease that killed writer Charlotte Raven shared his good news with her daughter

I dont think I appreciated just how extraordinary the news about Huntington’s was until I started researching this - hopefully it comes across observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

It’s definitely in the mix.

Woman from Gaza evacuated to Italy in a 'state of severe physical deterioration' dies in hospital An Italian hospital says a 20-year-old Palestinian woman has died after being transferred from Gaza for treatment.

(That’s from AP by the way apnews.com/article/ital... )

Woman from Gaza evacuated to Italy in a ‘state of severe physical deterioration’ dies in hospital

And delays mean death. A 20 year old woman from Gaza died in Pisa last week - she was in a “severe state of deterioration”.

Italy has taken dozens of Gazans in several airlifts of patients. That’s Giorgia Meloni’s Italy, the one elected in an anti-immigration platform.

It makes it sound as though it’s a major undertaking to do something in six weeks that it took days to do when the children were Ukrainian.

A group of between 30 and 50 critically ill and injured Palestinian children will be evacuated from Gaza to the UK for medical treatment in the coming weeks, the BBC understands.

Slightly odd story from the BBC, which “understands” … what was in @theobserveruk.bsky.social yesterday.

Six children arrived on 6 August at a reconstructive surgery hospital run by MSF, the international medical charity, in the Jordanian capital Amman . Dr Earnest Emetole, deputy clinical director at the hospital, said two of them arrived with “severe acute malnutrition”. They have been put on a high-protein diet so that they can be stabilised. “When a patient arrives with severe acute malnutrition on top of a war-related injury, our first priority is stabilisation, not surgery,” he said. “Malnutrition severely weakens the immune system, causes anaemia, delays wound healing, and can also affect mental health. Operating immediately in such cases carries very high risks, so we focus first on gradually restoring nutritional status.”

MSF doctors:

Doctors in Jordan and Lebanon told The Observer they have been forced to postpone treatment for some children because they are too malnourished to recover from surgery.

Children from Gaza who need surgery have been taken to Jordan and Lebanon, but they can’t get surgery because they’re too malnourished to heal afterwards.

observer.co.uk/news/interna...

The Pacific voyage guided by just a spiritual GPS Researchers bid to unlock secrets of the Marshall Islands ‘wave pilots’ – and learn more about Alzheimer’s

observer.co.uk/news/interna...