The rising cost of energy is a national emergency. Last year, British households collectively spent around £30bn on their energy bills. Next year, that bill is expected to be in the region of £170bn. theguardian.com/commentisfree/… Millions of people rightly feel betrayed by the government for neglecting to do anything about the looming financial shock. Tory MPs spend all their time on hustings or commenting on those ongoing propaganda dabates from holiday homes. Meanwhile we have a useless redundant pm.

Putin did not anticipate 80,000 Russian soldiers dead or wounded. Dying with them is his Peter the Great pipe dream of a “greater Russia”. Extinct already is his reputation as anything other than a killer and a crook. theguardian.com/commentisfree/… Putin’s efforts to spread fear and instability, disruption and economic pain – making countries think twice about opposing Russia – extend beyond Europe. His vetoes have left the UN security council frozen in time.

Tory Ministers will be alarmed at the extent of potential strike action reflected in the TUC motions:
The country’s biggest unions demand they work closely together to maximise their impact and “win” the fight for inflation-related pay rises. theguardian.com/politics/2022/… The move, which includes the two biggest unions, Unison and Unite, comes amid growing anger at the government’s failure to agree a detailed package of help for families following Friday’s announcement that average gas and electricity bills are to rise by 80%.

F1 rule change:
The porpoising has been largely eliminated but bouncing remains and drivers spoke out, fearing for the potential ill effects on health. After a particularly brutal weekend at Baku some insisted the problem could not be allowed to continue. theguardian.com/sport/2022/aug… The FIA reacted with two parts of a new technical directive which come into play this weekend. The measure of jarring which sets a threshold beyond which teams cannot go. And a tightening of the rules on the rigidity of the floor, to prevent ride heights that are too low.

Tories neglect the people, but support profit-takers:
Confirming an 80% rise in the consumer price cap from October - will take a typical household’s gas and electricity bill to £3,549 a year.
Stark warnings about potentially devastating effects. theguardian.com/money/2022/aug… Highlighting the damage to *whole sections* of the population, analysts at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said for example that single parents would be forced to hand over almost two-thirds of their income after housing costs to pay energy bills.

Analysis of Home Office data by #LibDems:
Tory government has sent 3,071 LGBTQ+ asylum seekers back to countries where homosexuality is criminalised since 2017.

pinknews.co.uk/2022/08/25/asy… There were 415 LGB asylum applications lodged in the UK in 2021, 77 per cent fewer than in 2019. Total asylum applications rose by 36 per cent in the same period.

While dementia is a well-known condition in humans, dogs can experience a similar decline in cognitive function, with symptoms including disrupted sleep, forgetfulness, walking into things, difficulties adapting to change and getting lost. theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2… Canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD) is more common in older dogs, as is the case in humans:
Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers in the US reported how they analysed data from two surveys completed by the owners of 15,019 dogs, as part of the Dog Aging Project.

All promoted for Tory votes:
Despite threats to send those reaching UK by irregular means to Rwanda, the Home Office disclosed that 76% of asylum seekers had their claims for asylum, leave or humanitarian protection approved in the year ending June 2022.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/a… Priti Patel has struck a deal with the Albanian government which may take [Alb] officers to the Kent coast to be present while migrants are processed and assist UK authorities. It's yet to be confirmed when this could happen.

If radical political thinker Thomas Paine was around today, Liz Truss would be his MP, but he would not be one of her supporters. Thetford’s most famous son believed in taxing the rich, overthrowing governments and thought all Tories were “cowards”. theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/a… Beside Paine’s statue in the Norfolk market town, some of Truss’s constituents are equally disparaging.

“I think we just need a massive change, so bring back the philosophy of Thomas Paine.”

Putin has signed a decree to increase size of Russia’s armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million, including 137,000 rise in the number of combat personnel to 1.15 million, as the war in Ukraine enters its seventh month with no signs of abating. theguardian.com/world/2022/aug… Putin’s decree, coming into effect on 1 January, points to his aim to replenish the military which has suffered heavy losses - in May UK MoD believed had lost a third of ground combat strength - and failed to achieve its objective to capture the capital, Kyiv.

Britain is importing no energy from Russia for the first time on record after trade between the two countries collapsed after the Kremlin ordered invasion of Ukraine in February. Imports of refined oil came from Saudi, Kuwait, Netherlands and Belgium.
theguardian.com/business/2022/… Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released six months after the start of the war found that in June '22 the UK’s imports from Russia were down by 97% and stood at only £33m as sanctions took effect.

Brexit isn't working well so know-all Rees-Mogg, newly appointed minister for Brexit opportunities & government efficiency, appeals to readers of the Sun to tell him “of ANY petty old EU regulation that should be abolished”. Then he'll complete UK's ruin. theguardian.com/commentisfree/… He wants to be reminded of the 'unachievable' so long as we remained in EU: a specific change that only Brexit can unlock. The committed leaver will struggle before either mentioning blue passports or else retreating into abstract nouns: “freedom” or “sovereignty”. Free ports?

#FollowBack @robdn

all active progressives

This week's additions are welcome:
@sammwittings
@randombloke1876
@Snevino
@kowbayashi
@bmay
@LeonieGreene
@DTJackson
@DutchNewchurch
@23duff
@Andarran
@WmPowell2021
@KingstonLibDems Thank you @bmay

Latest I'm following, a #Followback welcome:
@Nazmameah1 @LeftyBotty @LeenaSFarhat @SusanMichie @KingKing3107 @SueBarnish @rach0907 @dorsetnative @ColSkye @cns46z @BrightBoy Thank you @Nazmameah1

Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter launched a project to help people understand more about the stories of black Britons. On the 32nd anniversary of Mandela’s release from prison, Tukwini Mandela will “make black history more visible, so it’s never forgotten”. theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/f… The technology also allowed her grandfather’s statue originally intended to be situated in Trafalgar Square to be “brought to life”,

People looking at the statue will be able to listen to a Make Poverty History speech Mandela made to a packed crowd in Trafalgar Square in 2005.

The UK’s equalities watchdog is facing calls by a coalition of 19 LGBT+ organisations for it to lose its status as an internationally recognised human rights body amid claims of politicisation and taking a “determinedly anti-trans stance”. theguardian.com/society/2022/f… Led by Stonewall/supported by Good Law Project it says the Equality and Human Rights Commission has taken a “recent and significant” shift on trans rights that causes them to submit to the Global Alliance of National HR Institutions calling for the EHRC to lose its “A-rating”.

Brexit supporters still say there are no disadvantages:

UK exports of goods to the EU have fallen by £20bn compared with the last period of stable trade with Europe, according to official figures marking the first full year since Brexit. theguardian.com/politics/2022/… The ONS compared trade performance against figures from three years ago because that was the last year before distortions caused by firms stockpiling ahead of Brexit deadlines and the spread of Covid-19.

Despite the disruption, the EU remains the UK’s largest trading partner.

Relatives/friends of serial killer Stephen Port’s victims welcomed Dame Cressida Dick’s resignation, as they had no confidence in her leadership after her refusal to accept prejudice played a part in inept police investigations into four LGBT deaths. theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/f… Sarah Sak, the mother of fashion student Anthony Walgate, 23, Port’s first victim, said: “I’m really pleased. Week in, week out the Met is in the news. It’s about time somebody came in and took control.”
Doc on BBC bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod…

Why would a hotel in Carbis Bay urgently build more meeting rooms - if government says it did not request them for the G7 summit meetings? Someone in govt must have made requests, perhaps in a break between parties?
theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/f… “There has been a significant public response to the unauthorised development and to the submitted retrospective planning application for reasons including the inappropriateness of the development and to the failure of the applicant to follow the due planning process.

An independent study links deaths of thousands of crabs, lobsters and a mystery dog illness to dredging of River Tees, raising concerns for the government’s flagship freeport on Teesside – a key to the Conservative’s post-Brexit, “levelling-up” agenda.
theguardian.com/environment/20… The report has led local fishers to reject a government theory via Defra that an “algal bloom” is responsible for the huge piles of dead crustaceans that began washing up on beaches along England’s north-east coast in October.

Carers probably 'get' this:
People who develop Alzheimer’s disease can experience sleep disturbances years before condition takes hold, but whether one causes the other, or something more complex is afoot, always proved hard for scientists to determine. theguardian.com/society/2022/f… US researchers have raised hopes for new therapies, and how “good sleep hygiene” could help to tackle the disease and its symptoms.

The findings show that humans’ 24-hour circadian clock controls the brain’s ability to mop up wayward proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease.