Laraine Cole

“ Sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.” Pratchett

[Irlandarra @martinez_j7902]

Norman Finkelstein

"If Jews are allowed to say 6 million, 6 million, 6 million, we can talk about the number of Palestinian deaths."

[Thomas Reis @peakaustria]

For twenty years, a biologist dangled from a helicopter on a hundred-foot line, landed in bald eagle nests on the cliffs of Santa Catalina Island, swapped the real eggs for resin fakes, and flew away before the parents killed him.

The eagles sat on the fake eggs for weeks. The real eggs were incubated in a lab. When the chicks hatched, the biologist flew back, removed the fakes, placed the live chicks in the nest, and left. The parents never knew.

Peter Sharpe did this up to four times a year from 1989 to 2009.
The reason was DDT. The Montrose Chemical Corporation manufactured DDT in Los Angeles from 1947 to 1982 and discharged waste into the sewer system, which emptied into the Pacific Ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Hundreds of tons of DDT and its metabolite DDE settled into the ocean sediment along the Southern California coast. The contamination entered the marine food web. Fish absorbed it. Bald eagles ate the fish. DDE accumulated in the eagles' tissues and interfered with calcium metabolism during egg formation. The shells came out thin. When a twelve-pound eagle sat on a thin-shelled egg, the egg collapsed.

DDT was banned in the United States in 1972, but the chemical does not leave the environment on a human timeline. DDE persists in ocean sediment and continues cycling through the food web decades after the last drop was manufactured. The eagles on the Channel Islands were eating contaminated fish in 2009 the same way they were eating contaminated fish in 1972. The eggshells were still too thin.

The Institute for Wildlife Studies began reintroducing bald eagles to Catalina Island in 1980. Between 1980 and 1986, thirty-three young eagles raised in captivity were released from hacking towers on the island. The birds matured. They paired. They built nests on the cliff ledges overlooking the Pacific. In 1987, the first eggs were laid. Every one of them broke.

IWS biologist Dave Garcelon analyzed the remains and found DDE concentrations high enough to explain the shell failure. The eggs were too fragile to survive incubation. The adult eagles were healthy, paired, nesting, and doing everything right. Their eggs were killing their own chicks before the chicks could form.

In 1989, the egg manipulation program began. Sharpe and the IWS team developed a protocol that sounds like a heist. They monitored every known nest on the island. When a pair laid eggs, they called in the helicopter. The pilot positioned the aircraft above the nest site, which was typically on an exposed rock ledge on a sea cliff face. Sharpe was lowered on a long line, sometimes a hundred feet, with a box of resin replica eggs. He landed in the nest. The adult eagles were nearby, agitated, sharp-taloned, and fully capable of inflicting serious injury. He removed the real eggs, placed the fakes, secured the real eggs in padded containers, and signaled the pilot to extract him. The whole swap took minutes.

The real eggs were transported to the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group at UC Santa Cruz or to the Avian Conservation Center at the San Francisco Zoo. There, in temperature and humidity-controlled incubators, the eggs were given the stable conditions their shells could not provide in the wild. The hatching success rate of removed eggs was roughly twenty percent. One in five survived. The rest were too damaged by DDE to develop even under perfect artificial conditions.

The chicks that hatched were flown back to Catalina and fostered into the nests. Sharpe repeated the helicopter descent, removed the fake eggs, placed the live chicks among the nesting material, and left. The adult eagles accepted the chicks as their own. They had been incubating what they believed were their eggs for weeks. When a chick appeared in the nest, their parental behavior activated. They fed it. They brooded it. They raised it to fledging age.

[Zoe Gardner @ZoeJardiniere]

Just gonna keep on sharing good reasons why the World Cup should never have been held in Trump’s America.

MAGA is pure racist poison.

[Maha Hussaini @MahaGaza]

Don't stop talking about Dr Hussam Abu Safiya

[GBX @GBX_Press]

🚨 JUST IN:

​BBC compiled evidence of over 160 Palestinian children in Gaza deliberately shot in the head by Israeli snipers.

​The reports state: "Israeli Jews are hunting children for entertainment."

[Ed Newton-Rex @ednewtonrex]

This speech is dreadful on so many levels I am left almost speechless

It reads like a sales pitch for AI companies. This is a UK government minister, sounding genuinely like someone selling AI.

Only at the end does it mention *one* risk AI brings: the impact on jobs. And then 2 out of the 3 solutions she offers are… teach people about AI

This is government by tech company. Ministers seem totally captured by the tech industry. This is insanity

[Ali🌱🌏 @AliBritton3]

Last year Walid's community kitchen was providing meals for the tent camp but now donations are so low it's difficult to guarantee even essentials for all the families.
🇮🇷 💥 🇮🇱 so the occupation halt aid into Gaza!
Please support the people in the tents, they need help badly.

[Ameen Aljbour @AljbourAmin]

My eyes are welling up with tears as I think I might lose my entire semester tomorrow… 💔 After the war, the displacement, and everything I've been through, I've clung to my studies because they're my last hope. But I might be prevented from taking my exams simply because I don't have the remaining tuition fees.

Only $525 is left.

Please, don't leave me alone… Any donation or even a share could save my future. 🤍
https://t.co/V4kAEEKqYO

[Tom London @TomLondon6]

SEE BELOW

@AndyBurnhamGM's REFUSAL to take a stand against the GENOCIDE in Gaza is a major reason why, if he becomes PM, he will be no more successful than the hapless, hopeless, weak, immoral Starmer

[Firas in Gaza 🍉🇵🇸 @laalmsr95993669]

💔 My cries for help seem to disappear into silence...
Every day, I write and ask for help, but it feels like no one hears me anymore. Has our suffering become something people simply scroll past? Have the kind-hearted people disappeared?
Because of the war in Gaza, my family and I have lost our home and now live in a tent. The conditions are extremely difficult, and insects and fleas are everywhere around us.
My beloved cat Simba is suffering badly because of these fleas and insects. She desperately needs treatment, but I cannot afford the medicine she needs. Watching her suffer day after day while being unable to help her is breaking my heart.
The support we used to receive has almost completely stopped. Donations have dropped by more than 95%, and now it feels as if we have been forgotten. I do not know why our voices no longer reach people, but I cannot stop trying for Simba's sake.
Please, do not leave us alone.
Even the smallest donation can make a real difference and help Simba get the treatment she urgently needs. And if you cannot donate, please share our story. A single share could reach someone with a compassionate heart who can help save her.
Simba is not just a cat to me. She is my family, my companion, and one of the few sources of comfort I have left during these difficult times.
Please help us. Our hope is fading, and Simba needs help now more than ever. Your kindness, support, or even a simple share could change everything. 🐾💔👇
https://t.co/WwNfHWRNpY

[Novara Media @novaramedia]

The Labour party’s Section 28.

https://t.co/1kmGcrcw6n

[Abubaker Abed @AbubakerAbedW]

.@adamparsons is an utterly shameless reporter.

He’s just a propagandist for Israel and is there to justify Israel’s genocidal actions.

He must resign if he has a shred of dignity anymore. He must apologise and resign. Shameless & cowardly.

[Ali🌱🌏 @AliBritton3]

Still no donations.
If you can't contribute then please share, it's critical Hisham receives enough support to buy food and water, also it's very hot and flea treatment is urgently needed.

[💙 💙 💙 #NHS I am a Socialist I organise strikes✊ @John_Burgess001]

I’m asking a favour of those who oppose outsourcing and the brutality it imposes on low paid workers, please support Barnet Cleaners by signing and sharing this Petition

👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
https://t.co/FrJDIXiccs

[Adam Ramsay @AdamRamsay]

Gaza is a central issue in political opinion across much of the Western world, yet official discourse basically refuses to say this.

[Parody Jeff @Parodyjeffx]

HOLY SHIT 🇩🇪🚨

A woman in Germany says “Free Palestine.” Police swarm, cover her mouth, drag her down like a beast.

That slogan is now banned in Germany because it’s considered antisemitic.

If you say it, the state silences you by force.

[Craig Murray @CraigMurrayOrg]

I faced massive official harassment when I gave a talk on Palestine at Leeds University approximately 6 years ago.
University officials on the door insisted on taking the names of every student who attended, leading many overseas students to walk away.
The female Palestinian student who had organised the meeting was so intimidated she did not come.

[Missing Pets GB @MissingPetsGB]

🐕 Please share to help find BRANDI #lost #YorkshireTerrier
Last seen: Bonis Hall Lane, Macclesfield #SK10 7 Jun 2026
If you have any information or sighting please contact. Do NOT chase her if seen. Brandi escaped through a gap in garden fence.
Please share

[Joe Guinan @joecguinan]

An epic thread of evidence of war crimes and genocide against children, an utter indictment of our corrupted politics.

[Hassan Mafi ‏ @thatdayin1992]

Insane how 20 missiles from Iran is getting more attention in Western media than Zionists bombing Lebanon 3,500 times.