Wakefield pensioner Neil Waugh has been praised online for offering the spare room in his bungalow to Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban.
The 76-year-old took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce that he had room for two Afghan refugees in his Wakefield home and that he would be opening up his property to house two people in need.
He wrote: “I am a 76 years old pensioner, I live on my own in a 2 bedroom bungalow. I have today informed Wakefield Council I am willing and able to give 2 refugees accommodation in my spare room.”
Members of the online community quickly flooded in to praise the pensioner's actions, with one user @ScottMurphy13 commenting: "It's always "oh why don't you have them in your house then?", until someone says sure, I will. Then it's all "oh why arent you having homeless there instead". Give over, he's doing a good thing. Keep it up mate, need more like yourself in [sic] England."
However, in a follow-up tweet, Neil was quick to assert that he wasn't looking for praise but rather to show that "there's always something we can do" - even when we might feel helpless.
Neil, who describes himself as a "revolutionary socialist / marxist" added: “I see it as a gesture to people who have been put in an impossible position by the Western coalition, in Particular America, NATO, and us in the in the UK.”
It appears his actions have now also inspired others around the UK to do the same, with tens of thousands saying that Neil's offer had encouraged them to follow suit and offer their own homes to those fleeing the situation in Afghanistan.
Twitter user @collinsedmunds replied: "That’s fantastic and inspiring, I’m off to do the same! I have followed you for a while now because I liked what you wrote, now I think your amazing and wish you lived close so I could drop in for a cuppa and chat!"
Another user @ellie46256165 said: "I have a spare room and am ready to help."
It comes as the British government launches its Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme, which will welcome up to 5,000 Afghans fleeing persecution in their home country to the UK within the next year.
In the long term, the program will aim to accommodate as many as 25,000 refugees to the country. Under the scheme, councils will be working with the government on the best places to house refugees.
The Prime Minister has said that women and children will be given priority status for relocation in the first year of the program.
To find out more about the government's Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme, click here.
The tiramisu hype lives on, and this time it's coming to Leeds.
It really does feel like the traditional Italian dessert has taken the world by storm as of late.
Everything from tiramisu cups and tiramisu coffees have been popping up all over our feed, and now tiramisu in drawer form is popping up in the city centre.
Misu Tiramisu is an independent business that began at Manchester's Christmas Markets and quickly became one of the most popular operators, all thanks to its miniature tiramisu ‘drawers’.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
The individually portioned and colourfully packaged desserts quickly became one of town’s top puddings, and owners Aleem and Aishah went on to launch a stand inside the Manchester Arndale too.
And now they’re branching out again in Leeds inside Trinity shopping centre for a two month residency.
You’ll find all their delicious flavours of handmade tiramisu, including classic, pistachio, chocolate, Biscoff, mango, and lemon - they'll also have some gluten-free tiramisu on offer as well, so no one has to miss out.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
Misu Tiramisu owners Aleem and Aishah spent a year refining the recipe for their tiramisus after a trip to Milan, first launching with their first market stall in Sale.
Misu Tiramisu is now open inside Trinity shopping centre opposite Boots Opticians and Pop Specs.
They're open every day of the week for you to get your tiramisu fix, from 9am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and from 11am to 5pm on a Sunday.
And trust us Leeds, they're just as delicious as they are adorable.
Fossilised 320-million-year-old fish found in Leeds’ Roundhay Park
Clementine Hall
A prehistoric fish fossil has been unearthed at Roundhay Park in Leeds.
The fascinating prehistoric skull bone of a coelacanth fish was discovered by a geologist at Roundhay Park earlier this year.
It is thought the creature was frozen in time aeons ago, during an era when the park was submerged under a vast tropical lagoon.
The remarkable discovery has now been kindly donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries and added to the natural sciences collection at Leeds Discovery Centre.
Image: Leeds City Council
The Leeds fossil was found by Ru Smith of the Yorkshire Geological Society during a reconnaissance walk he was carrying out ahead of a planned field excursion in the north Leeds park.
Describing the moment he made the discovery, Ru said: “There’s a layer of rock in the park which dates from around 320 million years ago, from a time before the breakup of the continents, when what is now the park would have been situated close the Equator and under the warm waters of a tropical lagoon. West Central Africa would be a good place to find similar environments in the present.
“There’s a bed of freshwater mussels called Carbonicola at one level in the rock, and opening a piece of shale from this bed in my hands I saw something unusual – a distinctive skull bone of a large fish. I knew straight away this was something different and very rare."
The bone was verified byexperts as belonging to a coelacanth older than those found elsewhere in Yorkshire, making it the oldest fossil coelacanth discovered in the region.
Ru added: “Coelacanths are pretty amazing fish and it’s just very cool to think that at one time, you could have been standing in Leeds and watching them swim around above a bed of mussels in Roundhay Park.
“That’s really the wonder of geology, looking at the rock and time travelling in the imagination to what was a very different world.”
Georgina Pellant -
22nd August 2021 
