Julien Burcher

WaderTales blogs were read in 72 countries in October. Most popular blogs: Waders linking Ireland and Iceland wadertales.wordpress.com/201… World-wide Whimbrels wadertales.wordpress.com/202… Moult on camera wadertales.wordpress.com/202… #ornithology #shorebirds #waders

Many councils in London embrace the deadly sin of greed (not just Islington) lbbspending.blogspot.com/202…

A rough field on the edge of Sunderland @BirderSouth #Scolopax2627

Obituary: Pioneering conservation architect Donald Insall, who has died aged 100, played a key role in changing the way historic buildings were regarded ow.ly/sH2l5102uJX

Bail conditions are not to attend any protest in support of Palestine. Not Palestine Action. Palestine.

Okay: - Attached bottlecap - Schengen, expanded to Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria - The euro joined by Croatia and Bulgaria - Air passenger rights (older, 2004, newly updated 2025) - Galileo satellite navigation - EU-Canada trade deal (CETA) - EU-Mercosur trade deal - EU-Japan trade deal - EU-Singapore trade deal - EU-Vietnam trade deal - EU-Indonesia trade deal - End of roaming charges, extended to 2032 - Price cap on calls and texts to other EU countries - USB-C common charger - Geo-blocking ban for online shopping - Streaming subscriptions that work abroad - Payment Services Directive (PSD2), no card surcharges and open banking - Instant payments regulation - EU Digital Identity Wallet - eCall automatic crash alert in new cars - Automatic emergency braking in new cars - EU-Alert emergency warnings on phones - Single Digital Gateway for cross-border admin - No more apostille stamps between member states - WiFi4EU free public wifi - DiscoverEU free Interrail passes for 18-year-olds - Erasmus+ (older, 2014), budget nearly doubled - European Universities alliances - European Solidarity Corps - EU Digital COVID Certificate - Joint COVID vaccine procurement - Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) - EU4Health - Europe's Beating Cancer Plan - European Health Data Space - NextGenerationEU joint borrowing - SURE short-time work loans - 15% global minimum corporate tax - European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR 3), euro clearing back in the EU - Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) - European Green Bond Standard - Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) on defence - European Defence Fund - European Peace Facility arms for Ukraine - EU military training mission for Ukrainian troops - Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) - Strategic Compass and the 5,000-strong rapid deployment capacity - European Defence Industrial Strategy - Security Action for Europe (SAFE), €150bn joint defence loans - ReArm Europe / Readiness 2030 - First ever Commissioner for Defence and Space - Military mobility funding - IRIS² sovereign satellite constellation - EU Space Programme and the EU Agency for the Space Programme - rescEU shared firefighting fleet - 5G security toolbox - Foreign investment screening - Foreign Subsidies Regulation - International Procurement Instrument - Anti-Coercion Instrument - Dual-use export control regulation - Temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees - Candidate status and accession talks for Ukraine and Moldova - Ukraine Facility - €90bn joint-borrowing loan to Ukraine - Sanctions on Russia (older, 2014), big packages from 2022 - Russian banks cut from SWIFT - Russian oil embargo and oil price cap - Russian gas import phase-out - Western Balkans Growth Plan - Global Gateway - REPowerEU - Gas storage regulation - Joint gas buying through AggregateEU - Coordinated gas demand cut - Windfall levy on fossil energy profits - Electricity market reform - European Climate Law, net zero by 2050 - Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) - Emissions Trading System reform and the Social Climate Fund - Renewable Energy Directive, 42.5% by 2030 - European Wind Power Package - European Hydrogen Bank - Methane regulation - Nature Restoration Law - Ambient air quality directive - Drinking water directive - Urban wastewater directive, polluter pays - Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) - Conflict minerals regulation - European Chips Act - Net-Zero Industry Act - Batteries Regulation with battery passport - European Battery Alliance - Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on batteries and hydrogen - EuroHPC supercomputers, including JUPITER - InvestAI and the AI gigafactories - Horizon Europe and the European Innovation Council - Ecodesign regulation, no destroying unsold clothes - Right to repair - Ban on products made with forced labour - Ban on vague greenwashing claims - General Product Safety Regulation - Common Agricultural Policy (older, 1962), current version 2023 to 2027 - Unfair trading practices directive protecting farmers - Geographical indications reform for food, wine and spirits - EU-China agreement protecting European regional products - Geographical indications for crafts, like Murano glass and Delft Blue - Creative Europe (older, 2014), current programme 2021 - Culture Moves Europe grants for artists - Music Moves Europe - European Year of Cultural Heritage - European Capitals of Culture (older, 1985) - New European Bauhaus - European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage - Ban on importing looted cultural goods - 30% European content on streaming platforms - Culture Compass for Europe - European Media Freedom Act - Anti-SLAPP directive protecting journalists - European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) - Rule of law conditionality on EU funds - Annual Rule of Law Report - Article 7 against Hungary - Whistleblower protection directive - European Labour Authority - Work-life balance directive, paternity leave - Adequate minimum wages directive - Pay transparency directive - Women on boards directive - Violence against women directive - European Child Guarantee - European Accessibility Act - European Disability Card - Rail passenger rights (older, 2007), recast 2021 - Trans-European Transport Network (older), revised 2024 - Single Market Emergency Instrument - EU Inc (proposed) - Digital euro (in negotiation) - Next EU budget at close to €2 trillion (proposed) - European Competitiveness Fund (proposed) - AgoraEU culture and media programme (proposed) - Savings and Investments Union (proposed) - European supervision of big stock exchanges and crypto firms (proposed) - Scaleup Europe Fund (launching) - Startup and Scaleup Strategy - Digital Omnibus simplification (proposed) - European Business Wallet (proposed) - European Innovation Act (expected) - Quantum Act (expected) - Cloud and AI Development Act (expected) - Chips Act 2.0 (expected) - Biotech Act (proposed) - Advanced Materials Act (expected) - Industrial Accelerator Act (expected) - Circular Economy Act (expected) - Critical Medicines Act (proposed) - EU Space Act (proposed) - European Grids Package (proposed) - 2040 climate target of 90% (in negotiation) - European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) - Defence Readiness Omnibus (proposed) - Military mobility package (proposed) - European Drone Defence Initiative and Eastern Flank Watch - High-speed rail linking European capitals (plan) - Single cross-border train ticketing (expected) - EU Customs Authority (in negotiation) - European Affordable Housing Plan - Union of Skills and cross-border recognition of qualifications - EU-India trade deal (in negotiation) - Montenegro and Albania accession - Qualified majority voting in foreign policy (under discussion)

NHS SPENT MILLIONS SILENCING SIX DOCTORS. EVERY SINGLE ONE WAS RIGHT Private Eye @PrivateEyeNews called them the Super Sextet. Six doctors and executives who saw dangerous things happening in NHS hospitals, raised the alarm, and were systematically destroyed for it. Not one of them was wrong. Every single concern turned out to be valid. Dr Kim Holt @drkimholt warned Great Ormond Street Hospital that the child protection clinic in Haringey was dangerously understaffed and missing patient records. Management put her on special leave for four years. Baby Peter Connelly died. The trust spent £286,000 on consultants to investigate itself and found no management failings. Then it offered Holt £120,000 to sign a super-gag and disappear. She refused. Steve Bolsin, cardiac anaesthetist at Bristol Royal Infirmary, spent six years documenting that children were dying at an entirely avoidable rate during heart surgery. He raised it internally. He raised it with the Department of Health. He was told to keep his head down. Between 30 and 35 children died unnecessarily. Bolsin was described at a European surgeons conference as the most hated anaesthetist in Europe. He left the UK in 1995 and never came back. Ash Pawade turned around a catastrophic children's heart surgery unit in Bristol. When a baby died after an overworked perfusionist made a drug error caused by NHS staffing cuts, Pawade backed his colleague and called management to account. He was ordered to apologise for impugning the trust's legal team. He left the NHS without any recognition. Dr Raj Mattu, a world-renowned cardiologist in Coventry, watched a patient die because five beds had been crammed into a ward designed for four, leaving three beds with no access to oxygen or suction. He reported it. A senior manager responded by saying he wanted Mattu off the road completely. Mattu was suspended for six years, then sacked. The trust spent over £14 million of public money trying to discredit him. He was eventually awarded £1.22 million. The CEO who oversaw the campaign against him was given a CBE. Gary Walker was brought in to turn around United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust after seven CEOs in six years. He balanced the books and hit the targets. When a winter surge led clinicians to warn that patient lives were at risk, Walker wrote to his Strategic Health Authority. The SHA's chief executive emailed back: you need to meet targets whatever the demand. Walker was sacked in 2010 for gross misconduct. The gross misconduct was using the f-word nine times in three meetings over two years, not directed at anyone in particular. Dr Peter Wilmshurst, consultant cardiologist at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, spent 30 years reporting research fraud, confronting pharmaceutical companies, and taking on anyone who put profit above patient safety. He was sued for libel three times by a US medical device company after accurately reporting that their product did not work. The legal battle nearly cost him his home. The same playbook runs across all of them: suspend the whistleblower, bury them in vexatious complaints, pay management consultants to clear management, offer a gag clause, and wait for the person to break. @NHS spent millions silencing these six people. Not one manager faced meaningful consequences for any of it. Source: Shoot the Messenger, @PrivateEyeNews Special Report by Dr Phil Hammond @drphilhammond and Andrew Bousfield

The university crisis is one of the most ignored issues in British politics and was barely mentioned this week. This is essential from @gsoh31 for @ArguablyMag on how underfunding, marketisation and managerial incompetence created an avoidable disaster – and how it can be fixed. arguably.uk/p/how-to-save-br…

We have a loved one scheduled to be on this flight. He will be killed if he’s returned to the Taliban. He supported the US mission in Afghanistan. He has broken no laws. He came here legally. Seeking asylum should not be a death sentence.

31 October 1973. 1st episode of the 26-part classic ITV documentary series World at War was broadcast. It was narrated by Laurence Olivier with music by Carl Davies. It cost £900,000 (worth £11 million today).

This is a Javan slit-faced bat, facing extinction because consumers, especially in the US, buy them for Halloween taxidermy decorations. Apparently, people like their "rabbit-like" ears. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition on October 29 asking the US Fish and Wildlife Service to list them under the Endangered Species Act. They say listing the Javan slit-faced bat would meaningfully contribute to the species’ conservation by strictly regulating the import, export, and interstate commerce of the species, and hope the listing will also raise awareness of the species and its threats within the United States. Let's start spreading awareness right now of the madness of driving a species to extinction for a frivolous decoration. The full petition is in this thread. (1/2)