it’s such shibboleth of modern politics to blame politicians for failing town centres when the primary driver is - surely - all of us buying more and more stuff online

Hundreds of thousands of people attend anti-genocide protests every weekend. If there are incidents of antisemitism on those marches they should be seriously dealt with. "Anti-immigration" protests frequently feature Nazi salutes but Starmer has never suggested banning THOSE marches.

Pastor Robert Jeffress: "It looks like President Trump has a better understanding of what the Bible teaches than the Pope"

I still love the theory a Year 6 child proposed to me that David Attenborough is actually God and he got fed up with people not noticing the amazing things he'd created, so he made documentaries to show off.

Sarah Obenauer is speaking at the Implicit Religion US conference on her work, "The Thee Rs of Care: Chronic Illness and Implicit Religion in Central Appalachia." About Implicit Religion US www.implicitreligion.co.uk/ir-us/implic... Programme cdn.prod.website-files.com/616453adbf9f...

Voted #Green this morning #dogsatpollingstations

'A spokesperson said that the “difficult decision” had been made to suspend recruitment to undergraduate courses in history, philosophy, English literature, linguistics and creative writing due to sustained low student recruitment and declining demand'. 1/3

🚨 New blog post! 🚨 Is the UK’s Gen Z Christian “revival” overstated? Paul-Francois Tremlett (@paulftremlett.bsky.social) argues in the blog "The Resurgence That Never Was" that religion in the UK continues to decline: www.open.ac.uk/blogs/religi... @thebasr @informreligion @OU_FASS

NEW from me: many of our universities are now in a dying fall. A new global-national-regional-local split is opening up, which could choke off progress on almost all the Government's plans. Do they have a plan? Nope, nothing, not a clue. 👇 isrf.org/blog/whats-t...

#IR48 Dr George González will hold author meets critic session for his award winning book, "The Church of Stop Shopping & Religious Activism". Register www.ticketsource.com/edward-baile... About www.implicitreligion.co.uk/ir-uk/implic... Programme: cdn.prod.website-files.com/616453adbf9f...

Meanwhile, in seagull screecher news, don't forget this weekend it's the European Seagull Screeching Championship being held in Belgium.

The BASR @thebasr.bsky.social and ISASR 2026 conference will be in Dublin this year! CFPs: basr.ac.uk/2024/01/11/b...

'England’s second city has undergone an astounding transformation... since 2015 its economy has grown by more than 3 per cent a year, twice the national average.' Why Manchester - and Mayor Andy Burnham - are the example for what Britain can be. inews.co.uk/opinion/city...

University of Chichester earlier this month joined the ranks of HEIs employing all new staff through a subsidiary company to avoid TPS and LGPS liabilities.

👉 "A billionaire death cult has its fingers around humanity’s throat. It both causes and downplays our existential crisis. The oligarchs are not just a class enemy but, as they have always been, a societal enemy: a few thousand people can destroy civilisations." | @georgemonbiot.bsky.social

Judges at the International Criminal Court confirmed crimes against humanity charges against former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte for deadly anti-drugs crackdowns he allegedly oversaw while in office. apnews.com/article/icc-...

Average UK fat cat pay surges to £5.9m, up 18%. Exec pay and perks rise 4.5 times faster than a typical UK worker pay Shareholders asked to approve new average 200% surge in CEO pay. Govts preach pay restraint to workers, do nothing to curb fat-cattery.

'Texas A&M philosophy professor Martin Peterson is leaving the university after administrators told him in January that he couldn’t teach Plato’s Symposium in his philosophy class; they said the ancient Greek philosopher’s work violated the system’s restrictions on gender and sexuality content.' 1/3

Really excited to see my and @ardenthistorian.bsky.social 's pieces on the nerdy fascism of Palantir up @religiondispatches.org -- give it a read, those people are weird and awful. religiondispatches.org/fool-of-a-to...

New times, same old arguments. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism blog discussing the latest developments in the rapidly changing international order and how post-Brexit Britain is stuck in delusions of greatness and cries of Brexit betrayal: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/04/new-...

'Verlaeckt said universities and academics must play a more active role in defending the humanities and social sciences in a policy environment that is increasingly focused on competitiveness' 1/2

Jisc warning on escalation of cyber-attacks on universities: 'We are alerting members to a persistent and highly sophisticated phishing campaign currently targeting education and research institutions across the UK and internationally.'

The Trump administration continues its assault on federal science and scientists with its proposed FY27 budget, which would reduce the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget by 54%.

NEW: The Pope is doubling down. In Cameroon today: “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” 💥 (🎥 Vatican News)

Pope Leo XIV in Cameroon: “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants.”

We’ve joined 130+ organizations in an open letter with 4 clear demands: end the war, tax profiteers, cancel debt and secure food and energy for all. They profit, we pay. It’s time to change that. 350.org/they-profit-...

A little bit by me on green men in the latest @helleborezine.bsky.social. Look at the rest of the contributors! It's going to be a banger.

Out now! I very much enjoyed working with Prof. Dawn Keetley as academic consultants to this fascinating and beautifully presented book from Dorling Kindersley

Un estudio revela que la comunicación de los cachalotes guarda un estrecho paralelismo con el lenguaje humano. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

'As anthropologists, we have been conducting ethnographic research since 2022 on how research culture is understood and experienced within the intricate ecosystem of universities.' Smart piece this: worth a read. 1/2

After attacking Pope Leo, Trump posted a picture depicting himself as Jesus while in the background you see a shadow resembling the demon Baal.

Reform donor Ben Delo, who has given £4 million to the party, is making legal threats to those who reference his 2022 US conviction for failing to implement anti-money laundering laws, prior to a pardon by President Trump. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

PhD Studentship: King’s College London’s Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War (CRSW) Doctoral Studentships- King's College London - Department of War Studies #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRD022/p...

What if misinformation spreads because it feels right not because it is true 👀😨 Dr Dan Taylor explains why fear fuels fake news and why in the age of AI we need to double-check everything we see and share. Watch the latest Beyond the Books: https://youtu.be/_7otmig_7Co?si=bNmBPqW6tx3lZ4gG

Brutal.

The Trump administration offered a Vatican envoy "a bitter lecture warning that the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants—and that the Church had better take its side" www.thefp.com/p/why-the-va...

He is insane. And this is an open declaration of intended genocide. If any other world leader said this, there would be sanctions and an arrest warrant, not just for him, but for his whole regime.

What the actual fuck

“Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.” Geneva Convention Additional Protocol I and Department of Defense Law of War Manual, § 5.2.2

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

In a blatant act of provocation yesterday, Sadiq Khan allowed Christians to perform the Passion of Jesus in Trafalgar Square - a disgraceful show of dominance by a religion from the middle east.

What if we just went back to reading a bunch of books and thinking about them together, and that was the class? With syllabi no longer than three pages.

A fine fellow in my Insta comments told me about the Devil Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania, home to over 3000 demonic items. It's going on The List. Particularly fond of the accordion guy...

“Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.”

🚨 BREAKING: The European Commission has urged people to work from home, drive and fly less, and for EU countries to urgently roll out renewables, as it warned of a prolonged energy crisis as a result of the conflict in the Gulf. Full story: www.politico.eu/article/euro...

Welcome to our new Deepfakes Tracker, your hub for tracking and understanding synthetic media. Take a quick video tour. deepfakestracker.org