#united kingdom events

[drtonykeen]

If you're around London and at a loose end Saturday afternoon, there are still places available for my Manchester Continuing Education Network London mythology walk.

[sayruq]

[politijohn]

Source

First the UK, now France. The world is demanding change.

[technofeudalism]

Residents of Jersey have been recommended bloodletting to reduce high concentrations of “forever chemicals” in their blood after tests showed some islanders have levels that can lead to health problems. Private drinking water supplies in Jersey were polluted by the use of firefighting foams containing PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) at the island’s airport, which were manufactured by the US multinational 3M. PFAS, a family of more than 10,000 chemicals, can build up in the body and are linked to conditions such as kidney and bladder cancer, thyroid disease and immune deficiency.

you read that correctly. bloodletting. like leeches.

before you freak out, if you are an American, this is the island of Jersey in the United Kingdom. i wanted to get that out of the way first so i can address this fucking travesty.

since the 1950s, 3M and Dupont have concealed information about the harmful effects of PFAS. the movie Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo is specifically about Dupont and it's rampant pollution. 3M has been dumping PFAS in rivers and waterways not just in the United States, but across the globe for decades despite knowing with full detail the risks involved to the public. they even managed to intimidate a 3M scientist into staying quiet and pulled her off research into the toxicity of their products when she made the discovery.

at the same time, Jersey authorities were aware of this problem as early as the 1990s but didn’t switch the water source for the affected areas until 2006. they continued using contaminated storage tanks for foam until 2022 despite knowing the risks. this is blatant criminal negligence all around.

this part of the article in particular is so disgusting:

Despite the growing evidence of health effects, compensation remains unlikely. Jersey’s government signed a confidential deal with 3M in 2005, agreeing not to pursue legal claims for £2.6m towards cleanup. Jersey must also assist 3M in defending any future claims. A source who asked not to be identified said Jersey needed 3M’s permission to proceed with blood tests to avoid corporate backlash. “The state got an agreement to do individual blood tests, but not screening, as that could be the first step towards a possible class action lawsuit.”

3M’s gross profits in 2023 totaled over $14 billion and they can’t spend $3 million to clean up a mess that is quite literally responsible for killing people because by doing so, it opens them up to litigation involving every other mess around the globe where they’ve directly poisoned people with PFAS (or continue to poison).

but by far the most prescient part of this is the fact that Jersey's government had to obtain permission from 3M, a US corporation and the suspected perpetrator of a crime that has left at least one of their citizens terminally ill, if they could even do blood tests to check if they were responsible. the oligarchy truly knows nothing of borders.

[troythecatfish]

UK students launch protest encampments for Palestine

Student encampments have been successfully exported to the UK as students erect encampments across campuses, including Warwick, Newcastle and Manchester, in support of the Palestinian people of Gaza.

[captain-casual]

Better late than never. Let’s hope CERTAIN OTHER COUNTRIES follow suit.

[tiaramania]

TIARA ALERT: Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom wore Queen Mary's Girls of Great Britain & Ireland Tiara for a dinner celebrating the coronation at Mansion House in London on 18 October 2023.

[athena5898]

🔻UK (Palestine Action) — According to a senior Teledyne manager, contamination of their clean rooms could stop production for up to 12 months. Actionists just got through to the clean room for “Israel’s” F-35 fighter jet parts.

[zatdummesmadchen]

Please save what's left of my family

Hello dear

I am from the Baalousha family from Gaza.. 🇵🇸🍉

I hope you are well .

I write to you with a heart full of hope and faith, and I ask for your urgent help. My family is in great danger due to the war, and I am running a fundraising campaign to save them. My father and mother suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure. Help me secure them

Please, can you reblog my campaign post on my account? Every contribution can make a difference in my family's life and any donation, even a small one, makes a difference.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for any help you can provide. 🇵🇸🇵🇸

The campaign was documented by @90-ghost 🍉🍉.

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

HELLO EVERYONE PLEASE DO PAY ATTENTION !

PLEASE TRY TO DONATE AND HELP THIS FAMILY GET SAFETY !

🔻🔻🔻

🕊🕊🕊

AT THE VERY LEAST CONSIDER REBLOGGING SO IT REACHES MORE PEOPLE !

REMEMBER EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS AND ADDS UP MORE!

🫒🫒🫒🫒🫒🫒🫒🫒

[genderqueerdykes]

so i’m non binary and a dyke but i’ve never really been non binary. there’s not a word that defines my gender or lack of one. i was born afab and my parents have never had the wish that i was different they were supportive when i came out. but everyone else in my family wished i was a guy. they hated i wasn’t feminine enough and that i liked sports. they wanted me married off at 16. i can never identify as the right thing my experience is very it’s a grey area.

i only say non binary to give people something. i’m definely a lesbain. my use of they them pronouns is because that’s the closet thing that exists to whatever i have going on.

my wish is to be masc or butch. i don’t care for labels but that’s what i am to people. i want to be on t and be buff. i want have a cock that i was born with. if i was born a man i probably wouldn’t be like this but i also wouldn’t have the key parts of myself. i don’t feel like i’m trans masc maybe i am but labels are just social constructs and i don’t ever want to fit into a social norm.

i plan on telling my parents about my wishes to medically i don’t have the word cause it’s not transition cause i’m not transitioning to anything i can put into words.

i live in the uk and it’s not safe for trans people and i fear i will never have a complete identity. i fear that if i try and explain it to people no one will understand. even my friends don’t know. the words don’t exist. healthcare is fucked. the only option is private. i’ll have to rely on my parents for the money for it. i’m 21 years old and everything’s to expensive. my bender is fucked and i only got it this year. i can’t get a job not for a lack of trying. i don’t have the words or the means to get those words. this sucks ass. i can’t even be want i wanted to be when i was younger which was either a sith lord or pokémon trainer.

but at least i have a cute cat that doesn’t care who i am he will still bite anyone cause he doesn’t give a fuck.

i just wanted to say that it's okay that you're scared right now. obviously, what is going on right now in the UK isn't okay, but it's okay for you to be scared about what's happening. so much of it is out of your hands, its natural to feel powerless. you're being pushed between a rock and a hard place and there's little wiggle room to express or safely accomplish your goals

i think it's okay that you don't quite have the words for how you feel and identify right now. it's good that you know some things: that you want to go on T, that you want to be masc, that you know that you should have a penis. i think that is the most important place to start. focusing on what you want. if you feel butch fits you as a dyke, you are absolutely welcome to adopt it even if you don't call yourself butch. like maybe you're just butching up and masculinizing yourself. you can have an identity similar to or even matching another pre-established term and choose to not use it. that's your choice!

some people use the term "unlabeled" if they just don't have a good word to sum up their gender and presentation. and i get what you mean about saying non binary to give people an idea, even if it's not what you identify as. in many places that have fields where you're supposed to fill out your gender, non binary is the only option that isn't man or woman, usually. even if you're not non binary you can at the very least get an idea across, which is a bit better than before the term became popular and it was almost impossible to describe these things to the general public

i hope you're able to find some solace, and that you're able to get on T without much trouble. if possible, it might be good to look at local universities and see if they may have a queer support group. if not, you may be able to find another organization or group where you can go and talk to other local queers about how to survive in this climate. if there's nothing like that in your area, i am very sorry. it is very hard to go without community support as a trans person during turbulent times

if other trans people in the UK have any suggestions for this anon, feel free to help! i'm across the pond in the US so my knowledge of resources for UK based queers is very limited, but i would absolutely love to collect resources for you if at all possible!

i wish you the best of luck in your journey, and i wish that you're able to stay safe while becoming the person you want to be. your family can think and feel a certain way about you, but you know who you are. they can stay in the past and lament that you're too masc, but you're going to keep living that way, anyway. keep your chin up, feel free to come back at any point if you need help. take care

[drtonykeen]

And finally, another walk I'm doing for Mancent - the Manchester Continuing Education Network is a visit to Roman Colchester.

[valeriesangels]

Hello

I'm Amira from Gaza 🍉, responsible for my family since my father passed away. Despite becoming a university lecturer and app developer, the recent war destroyed everything 😥.

I urgently need to leave Gaza to care for my sick mother and continue my aspirations.

Any help or sharing of a support link would be deeply appreciated.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/amiras-story-between-hope-and-resilience-a-call-for-soli

Thank you sincerely 🙏🙏

Amira

Hello Amira,

Sorry for your loss🩷 Praying for you and your families safety.

THIS IS A VERIFIED GO FUND ME***‼️‼️‼️

If you cannot donate then please reblog and share, it's the least we can do to help. By interacting you can help the post reach those who can donate and let Amiras experience be seen. Xx

[politijohn]

Source

[phoenixyfriend]

Hey do you ever see a journalist approach a story in the most wildly inappropriate way?

This isn't the worst case but it's Not Great: 10:34 in the BBC Global News Podcast, early hours March 6th, 2024. Link contains transcript of full episode, but the summary is this:

Israel is messing about with GPS technology, and it is affecting people in Lebanon. Some Lebanese people's GPS tech is so badly impacted that their phones are placing them in Israel, and so they are being shown Israeli dating profiles on apps like Tinder.

The local journalist being interviewed is very focused on how the GPS on her phone is being impacted, making many features useless, and mentions how a lot of Lebanese people are deleting their apps because they're upset about the apps showing them Israeli people, because the two countries are on the brink of war (and, understandably, the people of Lebanon are incredibly angry about what is happening in Gaza).

The BBC reporter, on the other hand, keeps trying to turn it into something... cutesy?

Unfortunately, they don't have the Lebanese journalist's name written anywhere (and the BBC reporters say her name three different ways, and I've tried like five spellings), and I can't find her online with various search terms, so I'll just be referring to her as LJ here.

LJ: Yeah, exactly. So it has the dating apps, but you can imagine that it's not just the dating apps, it's basically any application that uses the user's location. So for instance, when I was traveling in South Lebanon, the GPS was so bad that it would put me in Beirut, it would put me in the sea, it would put me in Israel. It has a very weird impact for like just Lebanese especially also because for Lebanese it is actually forbidden to have any kind of contacts with Israelis. BBC: Hang on, did you just say that in Lebanon you're not allowed to have contact with Israelis? LJ: Yeah, not even like talk to them. So not swipe on them. So that would be something completely forbidden because, no, Israel and but and Lebanon are on the brink of the war. BBC: But as you say, [LJ], what's absolutely fascinating here is that essentially two countries that are in a, a kind of very fragile tense state with each other. The citizens, if they happen to be using these apps, are getting exposure to the other side. They're seeing the interests, the photos of Israelis, Lebanese, the people that they're not really interested in or not meant to be interested in. LJ, sounding a little irritated: It's extremely, yeah, baffling and and surprising when you, when you find like so many Israeli profiles, it has triggered some theories in Lebanon that there might be moat spies trying to get information. I also saw people being quite angry at it and saying that they're not choosing the apps anymore 'cause there's no use in it. BBC, with a forced cheery 'work with me here' tone: I just wonder whether it does promote a bit of understanding. I mean, across the border you do basically see that the other people are not that different to you. They're just on an app trying to find somebody. LJ, audibly fed up: I think like some people have these very romantic ideas of forbidden love, but overall, I think would be still quite annoyed of, you know, seeing so many profiles that they're deemed as like belonging to the enemy.

Sir, literally what made you think that was a good idea?

[troythecatfish]

[captain-casual]