This video says about itself:
11 June 2018
TYT Politics Reporter Nomiki Konst reports on the response from activists protesting against the US and Puerto Rican governments for their failure to disclose and investigate the accurate number of deaths in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Maria.
This 13 June 2018 video shows a young little owl at a window in Uddel village in the Veluwe region in the Netherlands.
By Lamiat Sabin in Britain:
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Grenfell survivors still left in limbo one year on from the fire
SCORES of survivors of the Grenfell Tower inferno are still waiting for housing exactly one year since the disaster that killed 72 people in west London.
The tower, 11 surrounding blocks and Downing Street were scheduled to be lit up in green in the early hours of this morning to mark the anniversary of the time the fire broke out.
They will be illuminated from 8pm until midnight for four following evenings.
But 68 families will spend the anniversary in emergency accommodation, 42 of them in hotels.
Fifty-two households have moved into temporary accommodation and 83 families are in permanent homes, Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) council said.
More than 200 households from the tower and Grenfell Walk, the low-rise blocks at the tower’s base, were forced out of their homes by the fire.
And 74 Grenfell Walk households cannot return to the Lancaster West Estate due to “deep trauma”, according to the
Radical Housing Network. They remain in precarious private-sector temporary accommodation.The capped rents for their flats on the estate and their private-sector accommodation will both expire on June 30, leaving them having to fork out extortionate full rates or fall into rent arrears.
RBKC is effectively making them choose between returning to the estate or facing indefinite homelessness in temporary private housing while losing their life-long rights as council tenants.
Zainab, a resident whose father-in-law died in the tower block fire, said: “Every day if we are here [on the estate] my children cry and cry.
“I feel like the fire happened just yesterday and the tower is right there. How can we live while we are still here?”
Her family of six is living in a flat where the landlord’s belongings sit in a locked room. RBKC has told them that they will have to leave when the landlord returns “soon.”
The council insists that there is “no policy” of making residents choose between their council flat or temporary home.
But Radical Housing Network spokeswoman Becka Hudson told the Morning Star that, regardless of whether it is explicit policy or not, scrapping the rent cap is forcing people to choose.
“Nothing scandalous is written on paper by the council”, she added.
She also said that the North Kensington Law Centre is dealing with many of these residents’ cases.
The law centre released a report on Monday that says that “there is clearly an issue with suitability” with the 307 properties RBKC bought in the aftermath of the fire.
“The council appears determined not to procure properties which would meet [survivors’] needs”, the report states.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted at Prime Minister’s Questions today that the government act to secure permanent homes for survivors.
Mr Corbyn paid “tribute to the survivors and members of the local community who have shown such courage and dignity in the face of what was a catastrophe.
“Today, it is also important to thank our brave emergency services who went into a burning building to save lives.
“This evening I will be standing in solidarity with the survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire and the wider community in North Kensington by joining the silent walk to mark the one-year anniversary.”
A moment of silence will be observed at midday by survivors and the bereaved close to the tower’s base, with silence also observed across the country.
In the afternoon, a congregation will be held at the nearby Wall of Truth before a silent march from 7pm, which will end in a Ramadan fast-breaking iftar meal in Kensington Memorial Park.
Yvette Williams, from campaign group Justice 4 Grenfell, said: “We want the nation to keep Grenfell in their consciousness. The anniversary is about love and support. The fight can start again on Friday and Saturday.”
The public inquiry into the blaze has been suspended for a week to allow memorials and vigils to take place.
This 11 June 2018 video is called The first CRAZY Moroccan-fans in Russia😂😂😂😂😍🇲🇦 for the 2018 football world cup.
This 10 June 2018 video says about itself:
Moroccans back the Atlas Lions to success in Russia
10 June 2018
The Moroccan football team is returning to the World Cup for the first time since 1998. CGTN’s Saddique Shaban spoke to the Atlas Lions fans and now reports.
Thirty-two nations under a groove. Will the World Cup be an orgy of petty-minded nationalism? Philosophy Football’s Mark Perryman doesn’t seem to think so: here.
This 2016 video says about itself:
The Great Butterfly Adventure – (BBC Nature Documentary)
The migration of the painted lady has long fascinated scientists, artists and nature lovers alike. The longest butterfly migration on earth, it sees millions of these delicate creatures travel from the desert fringes of north Africa, across thousands of miles of land and sea, before settling in the UK. However, the migration has never truly been understood, the mysteries of the painted lady never unravelled – until now.
From the British Ecological Society:
Painted lady’s roundtrip migratory flight is the longest recorded in butterflies
June 13, 2018
Summary: Researchers found that painted lady butterflies return from the Afrotropical region to recolonize the Mediterranean in early spring, traveling an annual distance of 12,000 km across the Sahara Desert.
Previously known to migrate from Europe to the Afrotropics during the autumn, the fate of this butterfly species and its offspring remained unknown.
Researchers were now able to demonstrate that painted lady butterflies return from the Afrotropical region to recolonise the Mediterranean in early spring, travelling an annual distance of 12,000 km across the Sahara Desert.
While the Palearctic-African migratory circuit is typically associated with birds, scientists from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a joint research centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), in Barcelona, Spain, found that a butterfly species endures annual trans-Saharan circuits like some birds do: the Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui). Their results were published today in the journal Biology Letters.
This butterfly species travels 12,000 km and crosses the Sahara Desert twice to seasonally exploit resources and favourable climates on both sides of the desert. Few species are known to perform annual long-range trans-Saharan circuits, and that of the painted lady is the longest migratory flight known in butterflies to date.
In a previously published study, the researchers demonstrated that painted lady butterflies migrate from Europe to tropical Africa by the end of summer, crossing the Mediterranean Sea and Sahara Desert.
The fate of these migrants and that of their offspring remained unknown. “Our hypothesis was that the species initiates a reverse northward migration towards Europe in spring, thus completing a regular migratory cycle”, states Roger Vila, one of the authors.
The answer is in the wings
With the aim of confirming this hypothesis, they studied the natal origin of the butterflies that reached the Mediterranean region in early spring. To do so, they analysed the stable hydrogen isotopes of the butterflies sampled in Morocco, Andalusia and Catalonia in Spain, Crete, Egypt and Israel.
An isotope is a form of a chemical element whose atomic nucleus contains a different number of neutrons compared to protons in the nucleus. In water, the proportion of hydrogen and its stable isotope depends on the geographical location. When absorbing water, this proportion is maintained in plants; it later remains in the caterpillars that feed on these plants, and, eventually, in adult butterflies.
By analysing the hydrogen stable isotopes found in the wings of adult butterflies, the researchers could determine where they had developed as caterpillars.
“It is difficult to study the movement of insects by means of observations, marking or radio tracking, since there are millions of individuals and they are very small. This is why finding out where a butterfly grew up before undergoing the metamorphosis by means of stable isotope analysis turns out to be extremely useful. It feels like magic”, says Gerard Talavera, who led the research.
The results show a major proportion of specimens stay in the Afrotropics during winter and that those recolonising the Mediterranean are most probably their offspring. This scenario closes the loop for the Palearctic-African migratory system of Vanessa cardui and shows that the annual distance travelled by the successive generations may reach about 12,000 km, including crossing of the Sahara Desert twice.
Whether the Painted Lady does regular migratory circuits similar to those of the monarch butterfly in North America was a matter of scientific debate. This research reveals the parallelisms in such a unique evolutionary adaptation.
Clément Bataille, professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Ottawa and expert in geochemistry, is co-author of this research.
See also here.
This Dutch tweet is about rare corncrakes near Weurt village in Gelderland province. Mowing machines threatened their nests. However, bird lovers have succeeded in stopping that threat.
This is a corncrake video.
This 2019 video is called 2018 FIFA World Cup™ – The Official Film Trailer.
An 8 June 2018 video used to say about itself:
2018 FIFA World Cup Group A, B, C & D Preview | FIFA World Cup Russia Group stage Analysis | ESPN FC
GROUP A – EGYPT, RUSSIA, SAUDI ARABIA, URUGUAY
GROUP B – IRAN, MOROCCO, PORTUGAL, SPAIN
GROUP C – AUSTRALIA, DENMARK, FRANCE, PERU
GROUP D – ARGENTINA, CROATIA, ICELAND, NIGERIA
The trainer of the Spanish team, by the way, has been sacked just before the start of the tournament.
This 12 June 2018 video is called WORLD CUP 2018 Group E & F Preview.
Group E are Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia.
Group F are Germany, Mexico, Sweden and South Korea.
This video from Britain is called FIFA World Cup 2018™: ‘Group G’ Tactical Preview.
Group G are Belgium, Panama, Tunisia and England.
This video from Britain is called FIFA World Cup 2018™: ‘Group H’ Tactical Preview.
Group H are Poland, Senegal, Colombia and Japan.
The first match will be tomorrow, Russia against Saudi Arabia.
I hope Saudi Arabia will not become world champion. Not because I have anything against Saudi footballers; I have not. Like with all other participants, I wish them good and sporting matches. But because it would be abused as propaganda by the Saudi absolute monarchy. A regime killing its own people, killing immigrant workers, killing Bahraini civilians and massively killing Yemeni civilians. A regime threatening to behead women activists for fighting for the right of women to drive cars, possibly giving them the death penalty as revenge for their victory in that struggle.
I hope the team of some small country with not that much money will become world champion. Maybe Iceland, Costa Rica, Panama or Tunisia? That will be a very uphill struggle for those teams against favourite teams with much more money. Yet, maybe, as the saying goes, a football is round and can go in any direction …
In 2022, the championship will be in Qatar. One should hope that not yet more construction workers will join the thousands of workers who died under Qatar’s horrible labour situation. And that the present cold war between the Qatari and Saudi monarchies will not become a shooting war.
And still four years later:
WORLD CUP WIN FIFA members have voted to award the 2026 World Cup jointly to the United States, Mexico and Canada. The U.S. last hosted the men’s tournament in 1994.
This 2017 video is about a great reed warbler singing in Germany.
Great reed warblers used to be not that rare in the Netherlands.
However, they need big reed beds for nesting. And these have often disappeared.
Great reed warblers used to nest in Loosdrechtse Plassen nature reserve. But they disappeared as reed beds diminished.
At one spot, grey lag geese fed on the reed making it disappear. In March 2017, a fence was put there preventing geese from eating the reed. Then, the reed started to grow again.
That attracted a great reed warbler couple which built a nest there this spring.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 