Keith Bassham 💙

Planning to move to Bluesky. X is not what Twitter used to be.

Breaking News: President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 men on federal death row, sparing their lives ahead of a Trump plan to restart federal executions. nyti.ms/4fB3cfc

Merry Christmas!

Quakers have urged the Prisons Minister, Lord Timpson, to intervene in the case of Gaie Delap, 77, who was sentenced to 20 months for a climate protest on the M25 in November 2022 #Echobox=1734799204" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/…

Government may cap UK political donations to limit foreign influence Proposal comes after Elon Musk reportedly said he would donate £79m to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party theguardian.com/politics/2024/…

From today, it's an offence to set a snare in Scotland for the purpose of killing or restraining a wild animal Wales banned snares last year Snares are not yet banned in England, where 200,000 of these traps lie hidden in the countryside at any one time #wildlife

Following the ICC's arrest warrants, how can the continued sale of arms to Israel possibly be justified?

A friendly reminder that during this flooding there are dozens of imprisoned climate activists who caused minimal disruption in an attempt to push the UK Government to take action to prevent the loss of lives. Two of those in prison are from Northampton. #FreePoliticalPrisoners

This former conventional coffee farm was completely reliant on ever-increasing applications of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and an aggressive rotation of fungicides just to break even in a good year.  After a comprehensive and holistic transition, it has become one of the best examples of regenerative agriculture in the context of coffee—not to mention its breathtaking beauty. Here are a few highlights: –Synthetic NPK was phased out completely, with no drop in yield and a dramatic increase in quality. –Fungicides have been replaced with biological controls and nutrition to manage coffee leaf rust, which now has an incidence rate below 1% across the farm. Previously, it was as high as 40% annually while using more than five types of chemical fungicides. –The soil is now covered with a diverse perennial cover that enriches the soil microbiome, retains more water, increases nutrient cycling, and eliminates the need for herbicides. –The farm now produces prized hardwoods, unique spices, cacao, and a variety of fruits, along with its award-winning coffee. This has garnered support from long-term buyers and roasters who recognize the farm's immense value to the coffee world.

House of Lords need complete reform @GreenJennyJones saying it as it is The only 2nd chamber in the world which is bigger than the elected chamber (Hoc) 2nd largest chamber in the world after China One of only two in the world where the clergy has seats...the other is in Iran

Sobering stuff in this timely report. 1 in 4 people in the UK are not receiving the palliative care they need. 1 in 4. But we’re seriously pretending the AD bill has safeguards to prevent some of those people being driven into suicide by a shameless lack of palliative care?

Lebanons civil defence workers are firefighters, ambulance drivers & paramedics, and the head of civil defence in the Baalbek region is a man called Bilal Raad, who had been interviewed by the BBC several times about the rescue work they were doing Last night Israel murdered him

More than a million pallets of unusable Covid PPE costing more than £8 billion have so far gone up in smoke Billions were spent on unusable protective equipment, with priority contracts handed to associates of Conservative ministers bylinetimes.com/2024/11/14/mor…

Israel has now killed 219 medics and paramedics here in Lebanon in six weeks. That is over 6 a day. Deliberately targeted. Ambulances, health centres, civil defence centres. All targeted by Israel. Just like Gaza, a stage of pre-planned genocide.

Why still no mainstream media coverage of what is unarguably newsworthy testimony before a parliamentary committee?

People are genuinely more engaged with Christmas ads than the fact their kids will not survive a 3°C heated world that we are heading for. This should be the Christmas ad people are watching. Maybe adding an old song and a weeping hippo or dancing robot would make them watch it. #JohnLewis

"Southern Water credit rating downgraded to junk" @SouthernWater are billions in debt, rated as hopeless by credit agencies and failing in their environmental duties. How can they be allowed to charge us more to dig themselves out of a self-made hole? bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

Lebanese paramedics sit amidst the rubble, grieving their murdered colleagues. Israel bombed a Civil Defense Center in Baalbek, Lebanon, wiping out 15 paramedics in an instant. These were first responders, not combatants. This is sheer barbarity.

We need a second chamber representative of regions; elected by PR and operating in modern building rather than a museum that threatens to either fall down or burn down @GreenJennyJones Labour's plans to abolish hereditory peers "I'm going to vote for this, but its a rubbish bill

Extraordinarily sad news that one of the country's last remaining havens for turtle doves, whose numbers, @horton_official reports, fell a further 54% in the past 5 years, is officially going to be wrecked to build an artificial surf lagoon as @SaveBHCP lose their legal battle.