I hope in 2023 your coffee tastes like magic, your playlist makes you dance, strangers make you smile and the night sky touches Your Soul. I hope you share joy and the hand of friendship with another and tell your family and friends you love them.

One woman, #SifanHassan, is celebrated worldwide for winning an Olympic medal while promoting the hijab. At the same time, another woman, #ArezooBadri, refused to submit to Iran’s mandatory hijab. For this, the police shot at her car, leaving her paralyzed. She now lies in a hospital bed, forgotten by the world. Her photo was sent to me by her friend, trembling with fear of being arrested for sharing it. Who will you choose to give a voice to? We, the women of Iran, refuse to let the Islamic regime use our bodies to promote their ideology. For this defiance, we pay with our lives. But tragically, this struggle doesn’t make international headlines anymore. The world is painfully unjust, and it breaks my heart but we won’t give up our fight.

✨Keynote speaker✨ Molly is making WAVES in the youth moment. Our fave Mol quote: “If you don't include us, it'll be people like me running these conferences in 20 years time.” Thank you @Bernieadavies for including young people so we can make cross generation change.

From a heartbroken Father, describing #ChildhoodCancer 💔 “As a photographer it is important to capture the truth and the reality of a situation, too easy it becomes to capture the joy of life whilst discarding the torture that we see. This is the hardest photograph I have ever made, it is in fact my own four year old daughter. A few days ago she was given what is most likely only a few weeks to live after a battle against cancer that has been waged for over twelve months. This photograph was made in a moment that we as parents could offer her no comfort, her pushing us away whilst she rode out this searing pain in solitude. This sadly, for us as a family, is not a sight that we see rarely. This is now a familiar sight that we see regularly through each day and night, its frequency now more often. This is the true face of cancer, my baby girls blood vessels protruding from beneath her skin, a solitary tear running down her cheek, her body stiffened and her face contorted in pain. I could try and use a thousand words to describe this image that we as parents are confronted with on a daily basis but these words would fall short of truly depicting the sight we see. With this photo I do not mean to offend or upset, I do mean however to educate and shock those that see it in it’s context. Perhaps by seeing this photo people not in our position will be made aware of the darkness that is childhood cancer, perhaps these same people may be able to do something about it so that in the future no child has to suffer this pain, so that no parent has to bear witness to their own flesh and blood deteriorating daily. The only apologies I offer are to those that know Jessica, I understand that this photo is hard to see and even harder to absorb. To those that do not know Jessica I offer no apologies, this is what cancer does to a child in their final weeks and days!!! Before her diagnosis I was one of those ignorant to the darkness of childhood cancer, not truly appreciating the hell that it brings. It would never happen to us! Now I give childhood cancer the respect it deserves, seeing too many children suffering this same fate and watching families torn apart. If this photograph only serves as a purpose to make people think twice about this evil and put into perspective what it does to a child then it has achieved its purpose. Research needs to be done, cures need to be found, too long now has this been allowed to happen. Please I beg of you, as a heartbroken father, it is too late for my daughter, but childhood cancer needs to be cured. No family should have to go through this hell.” This right here is the REAL life of childhood cancer. Not the cute, smiling bald Children ones that you see. Our community desperately needs your support. Please give a #Follow & become a voice for our Children. 🙏🏻 ❤️ Jessica ❤️ #Forever4

The Strange Story of Mary Ann Bevan historydefined.net/mary-ann-… historydefined.net/mary-ann-…

#WomensHistoryMonth Margaret Haig Thomas, also known as Lady Rhondda (1883-1958), was a key member of the movement for women’s voting rights — and the owner of Cardiff newspaper, the Journal of Commerce. Read more here: ow.ly/qicl50QQlP7

RT @OliLondonTV: Amit levy, brother of Israeli hostage Naama Levy has spoken out in the UK Parliament to share details of his sister’s ki…

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

We don’t understand the argument that fewer bins will mean cleaner streets. Emptying them would help. walesonline.co.uk/news/wales… One of our members asked if bins could be installed on a street that gets heavily littered - the answer was no because it would encourage fly tipping ...

Let's remind everyone two innocent young women #MahsaAmini & #ArmitaGeravand were KILLED by the morality police of the Islamic Republic in Iran,no amount of lies & propaganda & telling the world every one of the innocent people that died had a health condition can hide the TRUTH!

I keep receiving videos from women of Iran, fighting back the morality police in the streets while using their cameras to expose them. Guess what? morality police officers are trying to hide their faces from camera. They are not even proud of what they are doing. What they do? They bully unveiled women and force them to cover their hair in public if they don’t, then they will call the morality, police van to arrest or fine them. Yes, in 21st-century #WalkingUnveiled is a crime in Iran. But brave women practiced their civil disobedience every day.

My niece Beth has gone missing. She got on the Jubilee line at Westminster towards Stratford. She’ll be confused - if you see her please DM

This is Edmond Albius. In 1841, he was an enslaved 12-year old who had no formal education and could not read or write. And yet, Albius was able to discover a technique for pollinating vanilla orchids in a quick and profitable way. Albius had solved a mystery that had stumped the best botanists of his time. Without his technique, vanilla would not be as popular as it is today. In the 1820s, French colonists brought over vanilla beans to Réunion Island (Albius was born there in 1829) and Mauritius from Mexico. They soon realized that no insect would pollinate the vanilla orchid. In Mexico, this was done by their wild bees. In the 1830s, a Belgian botanist by the name of Charles Morten developed a technique of pollinating the vanilla by hand. While the method worked, it was very time-consuming and required a large labor force. 12-year-old Albius used a blade of grass or a thin stick to lift the flap and fold down the male part so that the pollen came in contact with the female part. Once that was done, he would use his thumb to press down lightly, effectively pollinating the vanilla orchid. While his technique seemed very simple, it single-handedly changed the industry, and Réunion, at one point, became the world's largest supplier of vanilla. Today, Madagascar is the largest supplier of vanilla and still utilizes Albius' technique.

An Iranian woman, lashed 74 times for defying the hijab law, is now a hero to millions. #Roya_Heshmati, a Kurdish woman, was punished with 74 lashes for protesting the mandatory hijab. Defiantly, she refused to wear it even during her punishment. Her story is echoing across Iranian social media. During her ordeal, she sang powerfully: "In the name of women, in the name of life, the chains of slavery have been torn apart." Roya epitomizes the brave women of #WomanLifeFreedom, determined to dismantle the Islamic regime of Iran and establish a Democratic Iran.

Who Remembers.

It really is an amazing piece of TV and really worth watching to see what happened to these innocent people.

There are some lovely words in Welsh..... ffugeurwe = tinsel ffug- pretend aur- golden gwe- web 😊

Malorie Blackman: The Power of Stories (24 November 2023 - 25 February 2024) is a free British Library exhibition celebrating one of the UK’s most popular writers for children and young people. @britishlibrary @malorieblackman #BlackHistoryMonth #BH365 blackhistorymonth.org.uk/art…

Pakistan’s former PM Imran Khan has told Al Jazeera he thinks the gov't wants him ‘out of the way’ because they’re scared to face him in elections ⤵️ 🔗: aje.io/ibet29

Getting Sick All the Time? Don't (Necessarily) Blame COVID-19 ti.me/3RGYjZD