Ben Long

Even the existence (let alone use) of nuclear weapons harms us, since it forces us to live with the possibility of experiencing that brief moment between the flash and the unimaginable blast.

A view of Las Vegas showing a mushroom cloud rising in the background, from a US nuclear test in Nevada

One of the (many) incomprehensible things about the Cold War is that the US detonated over 100 nuclear weapons in Nevada *in the open air*…ie they spent a good part of it nuking themselves.

I agree. They also failed to fully explore the consequences of their own possible response. Even a limited nuclear exchange between two countries would throw enough dust up to ruin global harvests. The FEMA official’s “10m+10%” risk assessment didn’t adequately cover that.

The Jevons Paradox?

Pass silly laws, win stupid prizes.

This open invitation to the @nebriefing.bsky.social was published in the @financialtimes.com today. Please check whether your MP can make it here: www.nebriefing.org and if not ask them to!

We will be briefing on national security, tipping points, food security, nature and more.

I’m in my 40s. For me, these organisations have never represented activism that results in change. Their names are most familiar from old posters that my grandparents had on the wall in their loo.

Amazing. Time to show up for some quality climate and nature information, government peeps.

(My rental just now was tuned to Talk radio - they were discussing Net Zero and oh my there’s still a wild welter of confusion and misinformation out there…)

Record leap in CO2 fuels fears of accelerating global heating CO2 in air hit new high last year, with scientists concerned natural land and ocean carbon sinks are weakening

The most important story in the world.

As we heat the planet, we reduce the planet’s ability to stop us heating it.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Here’s what you need to know about Starmer’s illiberal protest curbs: they would have killed the Labour party at birth | George Monbiot The rights we enjoy in the UK, and the movement the PM purports to lead, were built on protest. Those rights are in dire peril, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

“This Labour government would have banned the labour movement.”

The always-excellent @georgemonbiot.bsky.social on blistering, exceptional form.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Is this moment the closest we’re going to get to the psychological cause of Netanyahu’s genocide?

Exactly!

bsky.app/profile/benw...

“After Saturday’s protest, the chair of the Metropolitan police federation said officers policing protests in London were “emotionally and physically exhausted”.”

Well yes- that’s what happens when bad laws compel police to arrest peaceful, often elderly, people rather than focus on actual crime.

Police to get new powers to crack down on repeated protests, says Home Office Move follows arrest of almost 500 people at latest pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday

This Labour govt has seized on one brutal anti-Semitic attack to further clamp down on legitimate protest against their own increasing authoritarianism.

Are they worse than the Tories?

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The Israeli state is psychopathic.

Attacks on Jews are intolerable.

Two things can be true at once.

Exactly.

Progressives urgently need to clarify: progress towards what?

Not a great look, Sadiq Khan. Nothing about this reads as ‘6th form politics’ to the public. Gaza is arguably one of the great moral catastrophes of our time.

Wow. Journalist searches in Tel Aviv for three days for evidence of Israeli compassion for Palestinian civilians in Gaza — finds almost none.

I’ve never been to Israel, but the
impression given here is of collective psychopathy.

www.theguardian.com/world/video/...

Imagine the press if this were EVs

Is Charlie Kirk America’s Reichstag Fire?

“Vehicle tax on a new £85,000 BMW X5 would amount to £3,200 in the UK, but the sale would incur taxes of £66,600 in France”.

Well that explains why all the SUVs in France are British.

Yes you can fret about @zackpolanski.bsky.social talking only to his base and not reaching more conservative voters, as perhaps others would have. But he seems to be on the airwaves everywhere, & he’s articulating a necessary & genuinely-progressive agenda better than any other leader 👏👏👏

3. Incompetence. The whole thing is a series of own goals under the grand own goal of handing the country to Farage. Absent moral compass, as you say, they also just aren’t very good at politics.

This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen.

By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza

If you want to know how dangerous the Israeli regime is, you only need to listen to their spokesperson David Mencer on BBC R4 Today programme at 8.10am. Spends the whole interview shouting over Nick Robinson, claiming the UN is in cahoots with Hamas to starve Gazans. Absolutely unhinged.

Regardless of what you think of the proscription of a non-violent direct action organisation, the fact that the police can’t tell the difference between support of Palestine and support of Palestine Action shows that intelligence is low and training is needed.

“…unless the judicial review is successful, membership of, or inviting support for, the group [#PalestineAction] will carry a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.”

Palestine Action are a non-violent, direct action protest group. This is wild government overreach.

Ban on Palestine Action to take effect after legal challenge fails Group will become first direct action protest group to be banned under Terrorism Act after unsuccessful action

When protest is conflated with terrorism, the complete erosion of all civil liberties is well underway. This presided over by a government that has co-opted the Labour brand but has none of its humanity. It’s time for a complete change in how we do politics.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I support #PalestineAction and all non-violent direct action groups seeking to protect life.