... on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing - A UK Socialist's blog

… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

2 October 2026
Miliband all talk on Israeli sanctions, campaigners say
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/miliband-all-talk-israeli-sanctions-campaigners-say
Mourners gather around the flag-draped remains of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes after they were recovered from the rubble, during their funeral in Gaza City, October 1, 2026
CAMPAIGNERS have accused Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government of being “hot on talk but cold on action” when it comes to weapons sales to Israel.
Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) spoke out today after it emerged that the “double lock” on arms sales to Israel announced by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on September 8 had no impact whatsoever.
In response to a parliamentary question, the government confirmed that the first lock, a review of arms sales to ensure compliance with UK and international law, introduced in September 2024 had led to 29 licences being suspended and 56 licences being refused.
The same answer, however, reveals the new second lock, which aims to weed out exports used in illegal activities such as Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, has seen no further licences suspended since it was introduced last month, despite Mr Miliband’s claims at the Labour conference his government had reset its approach.
CAAT spokesman Leo Verity said: “Government recognition of ethnic cleansing, Israeli settler-terrorism and of the illegality of the occupation is the first step to ending UK complicity.
“But for the brutalised Palestinian people, all that matters is action, on arms sales and beyond.
“Right now it seems that the Burnham government is hot on talk but cold on action, with the ‘double lock’ on arms to Israel looking more like ‘doubling down’.”
…
Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/miliband-all-talk-israeli-sanctions-campaigners-say
Ed Miliband claims that he and Andy Burnham have reformulated Blair’s triangulation strategy. Their new formulation entails acknowledging that they were wrong on Israel and Palestine but entails doing absolutely nothing about it and continuing exactly the same policies hoping that you’re too stupid to notice.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.

Andy Burnham backs Israel
2 October 2026
‘No moral government should tolerate Palantir’s involvement in our NHS’
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/no-moral-government-should-tolerate-palantirs-involvement-our-nhs
Protesters gather outside Number 10 North in Manchester demanding the government puts an end to spy tech firm Palantir’s role in the NHS, October 1, 2026
Patients and health workers unite at demos across England demanding the government cut ties with the spy tech firm
PATIENTS, health workers, and members of the public gathered in more than 40 protests across England today to demand an end to spy tech firm Palantir’s role in the NHS.
In London, protesters converged on Palantir’s headquarters to hand in a giant “contract terminated” poster as part of a global week of action against the company’s involvement in public services.
The protests in Manchester, Exeter, Liverpool, Bristol, Norwich, Newcastle, Birmingham and Brighton were organised by campaign groups, including Medact, Global Justice Now, Keep Our NHS Public, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and We Own It.
Campaigners condemned Palantir’s role in managing the country’s health data, citing its track record of surveillance, human rights abuses and complicity in the genocide in Gaza.
Speaking at the London rally, Dr Omar Abdel-Mannan, a paediatric neurologist in the NHS who has volunteered in Gaza, said: “Everything that I stand for as a doctor, every principle of the NHS committed to providing equitable healthcare for all, is directly contradicted by the core values and repeated actions of Palantir.
…
Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/no-moral-government-should-tolerate-palantirs-involvement-our-nhs
2 October 2026
Groups Call Senate Permitting Deal a ‘Blatant Giveaway to Big Oil and Big Tech’
Article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Green-winged teals are seen flying over water at Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in Wyoming on April 25, 2019. (Photo by Tom Koerner/US Fish and Wildlife Service/flickr/cc)
“If it comes to pass, this deal would bulldoze America’s most important wildlife law,” said one campaigner.
A bipartisan Senate proposal to overhaul federal permitting rules drew fierce opposition Wednesday from environmental and wildlife advocates, who warn that the legislation could significantly weaken the Endangered Species Act and other key protections in service of boosting President Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel and artificial intelligence agenda.
Senate negotiators—chiefly Democrats Martin Heinrich (NM) and Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) and Republicans Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) and Mike Lee (Utah)—reportedly reached an agreement Monday on the text of a sweeping permitting package intended to speed construction of energy and infrastructure projects.
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While the full legislative text of the “Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026” had not been publicly released as of Wednesday, reported provisions have prompted alarm among conservation groups, who warn that the proposal would weaken endangered species protections, shift federal authority and responsibility to states, limit scientific review and judicial oversight, and exempt some projects from key environmental consultations.
“If it comes to pass, this deal would bulldoze America’s most important wildlife law,” Defenders of Wildlife president and CEO Andrew Bowman said Wednesday. “We can build the infrastructure America needs without sacrificing the wildlife we have a responsibility to protect and that Americans cherish. Development should not come at the expense of science, accountability, or the ability of America’s most imperiled wildlife to survive.”
Oil Change International called the proposal “a blatant giveaway to Big Oil and Big Tech.”
“This ‘dirty deal’ threatens to raise electricity prices for working families by accelerating the buildout of energy-guzzling AI data centers and liquefied natural gas export projects,” said Oil Change International US campaigns manager Collin Rees. “Our recent research shows that the Trump administration’s support for reckless AI development and greater gas exports drives up energy costs for households.”
Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said that “this is a climate kill shot that condemns our most vulnerable communities to suffer decades more fossil fuel pollution.”
“It’s absurd to ensure our planet chokes with greenhouse gases, gut endangered species protections, and eviscerate the Clean Water Act for what seems to be a nearly meaningless victory against Trump’s war on offshore wind,” Hartl continued. “The minor benefits for renewable energy corporations are massively dwarfed by the gifts to the fossil fuel industry.”
“If this grotesque legislation becomes law, the paltry increases in renewable energy will be instantly devoured by AI data centers,” he added. “The only winners here are Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, tech oligarchs, and the shareholders of fossil fuel companies.”
According to CBD:
Today’s package contains numerous provisions that lock in thousands of fossil fuel projects, including oil and gas pipelines, [liquefied natural gas] export terminals, and expanded fossil fuel drilling onshore and offshore approved by President Trump over the past two years. It also ensures that future fossil fuel pipelines and methane gas-generated electricity can never be challenged in court.
Additional provisions gut parts of the Clean Water Act, including the Section 401 authority of states to protect their rivers and streams from the impacts of building pipelines and the [Environmental Protection Agency’s] Section 404(c) permit veto authority, which has been used to stop projects like the Pebble Mine in Alaska.
The legislation weakens the National Historic Preservation Act and Tribal consultations, leaving most Tribal nations with no meaningful way to protect their sovereignty when faced with potential fossil fuel projects on their lands.
Furthermore, CBD noted, “the legislation guts the Endangered Species Act by allowing states to take over the Section 7 consultation process with minimal safeguards, turning one of the law’s strongest provisions into a state-run rubber stamp of dangerous projects.”
The Western Environmental Law Center described the proposal as a “five-alarm fire,” warning that it could weaken the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, [National Environmental Policy Act], and other safeguards.
“The permitting deal is a betrayal of public lands, water, and wildlife, and environmental justice values that Westerners depend on,” said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, the group’s executive director, who warned that the measure could ultimately “hobble the ability of future administrations to enact an ambitious climate and conservation agenda.”
Hartl called out Democrats Heinrich and Whitehouse for “giving away our most cherished environmental laws based on fantastical models that project a renewable energy utopia.”
“They’re rewarding a ruthless fossil fuel industry that will always put its quarterly profits ahead of a livable planet and future generations,” he said. “Trump promised fossil fuel companies that he’d do everything in his power to assist them in his second term, and Sen. Heinrich and Sen. Whitehouse seem hell-bent on helping Trump fulfill that promise.”
Bowman contended that “Congress should be looking for ways to make permitting more efficient rather than a Trojan horse to weaken the Endangered Species Act.”
“Efficiency and conservation are not opposing goals,” he added. “A durable permitting bill should deliver both. Congress should not lock in permanent damage to the Endangered Species Act simply to get a deal today.”
Article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
2 October 2026
Report Delivers ‘Starkest Warning Yet’ on How Climate Emergency Is Causing ‘Profound Changes’ for Oceans
Article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
A coral reef around Taravai Island with many acropora corals is seen on February 16, 2018 in the Gambier Islands, French Polynesia. (Photo by Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
“The ocean is transforming before our eyes: Warming, rising seas, and ecosystem degradation are interconnected signs of significant and long-term change.”
The 10th annual Copernicus Ocean State Report, released Wednesday by a team of more than 100 international scientists, provided the latest reminder that, as one United Nations official said, “the ocean is one of the clearest indicators of the profound shifts” that the climate crisis is causing.
Data gathered by Mercator Ocean International, the nonprofit that produced the report, revealed “an ocean warming at an alarming pace, with far-reaching consequences for marine life, coastlines, and communities worldwide,” said the group.
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The study delivers ocean scientists’ “starkest warning yet of the profound changes sweeping across the ocean, as a likely unprecedented El Niño takes shape in the Pacific,” said Mercator, referring to the natural warming trend that is expected to be made more intense this year by planetary heating.
Drawing on four decades of data from satellites, buoys, sensors, and modeling, the scientists found that 2024 was marked by record-breaking marine heatwaves as well as an unprecedented extreme low sea level event, causing levels in the Bothnian Bay between Sweden and Finland to plunge 60 inches, bringing ferries to a halt for 18 hours.
Heatwaves in the Mediterranean and Black seas lasted more than 30 days and raised water temperatures by more than 8.3°F (4.6°C) above average.
“These are not isolated hot spells; they are occurring against a backdrop of sustained ocean warming that is changing the conditions marine ecosystems experience,” Blanca Fernández-Álvarez, a report author and a conresearcher at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, told CNN.
Ten editions. One increasingly urgent picture. Explore the 10th Copernicus Ocean State Report and the evidence shaping our understanding of the ocean.

Read #OSR10: https://t.co/un5edjk3to #CopernicusMarine #OceanScience
— Mercator Ocean International (@MercatorOcean) September 30, 2026

But along with extreme events documented in the report, the scientists found unmistakable trends showing no sign of letting up, including persistent damage to marine life due to ocean heating fueled by continued oil and gas extraction.
Small island states—some of the countries least responsible for carbon emissions that are leading to record heat absorption by the oceans—face worsening, “overlapping pressures” including sea-level rise that could wipe out coastal and island communities and the growing threat of more intense tropical cyclones.
Over the last three decades, reads the report, “ongoing reorganization of marine ecosystems around the world” hasr been made clear by persistent changes in growth patterns of phytoplankton, which support food webs and carbon flows, in nearly 5% of the ocean.
Heat stress also contributed to coral bleaching in 84% of the world’s reefs, threatening marine ecosystems as well as coastal communities that rely on reefs for protection and tourism.
“The ocean is transforming before our eyes: Warming, rising seas, and ecosystem degradation are interconnected signs of significant and long-term change,” said Pierre Bahurel, director general of Mercator Ocean International.
As humans have continued to emit carbon and other greenhouse gases despite warnings from energy experts and scientists, the rate of ocean heating has doubled over the past two decades, causing sea surface temperatures to skyrocket to record highs in 2023, 2024, and this year.
In 2025, the report says, the ocean absorbed an additional 23 zettajoules—about 40 times the energy consumed by the entire world last year. The energy absorption is equivalent to 12 atomic bombs going off every second for one year.
The global mean sea level rose by 3.8 ± 0.3 millimeters each year between 1999-2025, and the ocean has become about 17% more acidic over the last four decades, wreaking havoc on crucial underwater ecosystems.
Peter Thomson, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for the ocean, emphasized that the dangers posed to the world’s oceans by continued fossil fuel extraction have been made clear over 10 years of reports by Mercator, as well as other warnings from scientists.
“What it tells us is unmistakable: The ocean is changing, and those changes are reaching into the lives, livelihoods, and security of people everywhere,” said Thomson. “We have the knowledge. We have the evidence. Now we need the political will to act.”
Article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
- Why are our oceans getting warmer? | National Geographic ›
- World’s oceans absorbed record heat equal to 40 times annual global energy use | Environment | The Guardian ›
2 October 2026