They laughed at us because Americans were stupid enough to "vote" him back into office. Now they look at us with disgust and distrust.

Why did BBC Breakfast give Reform UK a special graphic? A small detail in a brief report sparks some big questions about what the national broadcaster is doing during the run up to local and national elections.

It definitely looked weird... open.substack.com/pub/brokenbo...

This Data Center Is Getting a $77 Million Tax Break to Create One Job No other project in the country has gotten such a large subsidy to create so few jobs, according to watchdogs.

A New Jersey data center will reportedly receive $77 million in tax breaks — while only creating one permanent job.

One job, in exchange for higher utility bills, noise pollution, and potential groundwater pollution.

Is it any wonder communities are organizing to stop data centers?

Holding water in arid west Norfolk landscapes has become a high priority nature recovery ambition. Leaky dams are just the job. This one in a woodland chalk stream trib. Lovely amphibian habitat behind.

In February 1777, General George Washington ordered the first mass immunization campaign in American history by mandating that his troops be inoculated against smallpox. He protected the Continental Army from an epidemic that was deadlier than British forces.

249 years later, we have this idiot.

Shake-up will help UK motorists without driveways to charge EVs Green light likely for law allowing automatic approval for pavement ‘charging gullies’ to help boost EV take-up

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Almost half of EU’s busiest flight routes are ‘hard or impossible’ to book on trains – report ‘Stone age’ system of booking cross-border rail tickets holding back climate action by consumers, says thinktank

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Teleportation, aliens and cancer-busting soda - it’s not just Trump going cuckoo, his officials are too | Arwa Mahdawi As the president’s men rave about paranormal events and Diet Coke, it seems the US’s only hope is extraterrestrial intervention

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... An important article to read. Much to digest.

Drivers look to electric vehicles as cost of petrol soars due to Iran war Petrol is almost £14 more expensive for a full tank compared to before the Iran war, while a full tank of diesel is almost £27 more

EV drivers in UK to save huge amount on fuel compared to petrol/diesel. www.the-independent.com/news/busines...

Breaking: New study using observational constraints projects that the Atlantic Ocean circulation #AMOC will weaken ~50% by 2100, even for medium emissions and without Greenland melting. 🌊
More realistic models means stronger weakening - not entirely unexpected.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thursday's GUARDIAN: War windfall: big oil makes extra $30m every hour during conflict
#TomorrowsPapersToday

More AMOC bad news: Scientists have found an estimated slowdown of 42% to 58% in 2100, a level almost certain to end in catastrophic collapse.
And “the reality is probably still worse”, says expert Stefan Rahmstorf, because the computer models do not include meltwater from the Greenland ice cap.

What lessons should be learnt from current panic re fertiliser trapped behind Straits of Hormuz? Just 42% gets used by crops. Rest is pollution. Emissions cld be cut 84%. carbonbrief.org/fertiliser-emi…

An AI Tax: Yoshua Bengio tells Victoria Derbyshire on @BBCNewsnight that “the only place” governments can get the money to help people put out of work by AI is “where the profits from AI will be”. Ie tax AI. No time like the present. @ajpendleton.bsky.social

Nightingale on a branch, which is covered with lichen. It's in a tree, and singing. It has mid-brown wings and back, and a pale smooth chest with a slightly darker and rougher bib. the bright orange beak is wide open.

The first nightingales have returned to Fingringhoe Wick after their epic flight from Africa.

There’s no sound quite like it—come and hear the season’s first songs.

eastangliabylines.co.uk/environment/...

An English Bluebell with multiple flowers

The number of ‘bells’ an English Bluebell has reflects its age

It is dependent on the increasing size of the bulb, root system & leaves capable of managing the weight, nutrients & water

Individuals plants can live over 15 years. Established colonies can be a thousand years old

/2. Thursford Wood. (Thor’s Wood ? A source of the R Stiffkey). Old Oak. Greater Stitchwort. Wood Anemone. Bluebells. @themarshtit.bsky.social

Spring flowers in a small gem of an ancient Wood Pasture: Thursford Wood, Norfolk. @NWT reserve. Bird Cherry at S end of range. Wood Sorrel. Primrose. Huge Common Cherry - multi-trunked but I think all one tree. Do visit. No dogs. Many Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Nuthatches. @themarshtit.bsky.social 1/

Maybe they migrated to Wells? Long walk though

Today I went out onto our deck and had the feeling something was watching me. Norfolk Roof Ducks. Quite opinionated @themarshtit.bsky.social

Also had a very early Whimbrel calling over Wells yesterday evening. Lots seems way too early. Hawthorn and Crab Apple in bloom in our garden on 9 April + an Orange Tip.

Hungary’s Orban, Beacon to the Right, Concedes Election Defeat

Great news with big implications - and we now have the JD Vance Effect alongside the Trump Effect. Seems voters don't like being told who to support. Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/w...

Two House Martins and 11 Swallows west over our house in Wells next the Sea just now. Six m. Shovelers and some females, pair of Teal, two prs Gadwall at N Point and distant Pintail (?) & Sedge Warbler, Blackcap. Willow Warbler in Wells. @wildernorfolk.bsky.social @bull-of-the-bog.bsky.social

This was all @craken-maccraic.bsky.social. So well written!

Britain breaks solar energy record twice as UK’s biggest solar farm gets approval Record high set on Monday and raised on Tuesday, with 14.4GW of electricity generated in sunny spring weather

A single line in this piece just made my day:

“The electricity system operator is understood to be preparing to run the grid without any gas for short periods as soon as this summer, in a first for the UK energy system.”

Renewables *work*. And progress matters🎉
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I miss them. ‘Pinks’, pink footed geese flighting to roost over our local shopping street in Wells next the Sea just before Christmas. Now in Iceland or Greenland. Hopefully safe. Still , I hope to hear a Nightingale soonish. @wildernorfolk.bsky.social @tonyjuniper.bsky.social

New projections of British biodiversity under plausible climate & land-use futures

Severe futures have 12-20% birds, butterflies, plants going extinct & major changes to ecosystems

More sustainable scenarios only decrease & do not stop loss; but require urgent action
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ireland is a rainforest nation, almost entirely shorn of its fabulous natural habitat.

Let's bring some of it back.
#Rewilding

A Century After Vanishing, a Gentle Giant Returns Wild European bison are roaming the Carpathian Mountains for the first time in 100 years — and bringing the land back to life.

Here's an uplifting conservation story about the rewilding of the European bison—a keystone species whose return to Romania is already helping to restore the native biodiversity and landscape. ❤️

Pic of Utrecht from 1982 to now

I put "trams" as one of my interests on my name badge at #atmosphereconf as a joke, but this before/after of Utrecht in the Netherlands is why...

Urban spaces in North America are mostly awful, and traditional 19th/early 20th century spaces were torn down or filled in for highways