Every single word in this headline is a surprise

On Friday, 5 people were injured in a machete attack in Edinburgh. Reports indicate the victims were mainly Muslim and two of them were attacked after they had left prayers at a mosque.

"Tributes have been pouring in following the death of respected mental health leader, human rights campaigner and Bradford 2025 City of Culture trustee Dr Sasha Bhat." A huge loss & a huge legacy. www.asianstandard.co.uk/tributes-pou...

"Five men have been injured in a series of suspected anti-Muslim attacks as a bare-chested man was seen roaming the streets of Edinburgh with a large weapon." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Mona Khalil, Lebanon’s most well-known sea turtle conservationist, died of her wounds today after being injured by an Israeli strike I feel sick

Just been to beautiful, friendly #Montpellier where trams are free for residents. Free public transport. Clean, safe, easy to use. Sometimes mini utopias are not so utopian.

Some vg on the ground reporting of Makerfield, which tended to find Burnham outpolling Labour significantly, and especially with women (as polls, before inaccurate reweighted, showed). Overall, national media had skewed perceptions/expectations. Not realising X is a distorting mirror key to that

✅ BURNHAM IN Makerfield by-election result: LAB: 54.8% (+9.6) REF: 34.5% (+2.7) RST: 6.8% (+6.8) CON: 2.2% (-8.7) GRN: 0.7% (-3.7) LDEM: 0.4% (-6.4)

"Children as young as five who are living legally in the UK are being told by the Home Office they must leave the country even if their parents have been given permission to remain." Horrendous & nonsensical. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

It’s all kicking off in Richmond.

Israel bombed a 900 year old castle from the crusader era

Okay so I read the whole of the Pope's latest encyclical "Magnifica Humanitas", the one the internet is calling the AI Encyclical, but it's about a LOT more than that (of course it is, it's over 40,000 words). Here's a thread of quotes...

Remigration Summit 2026: "Shaping the future of Europe and the West through sovereignty, identity, and demographic renewal" Being held May 30 in Porto, Portugal, "the primary language of the conference will be English."

@annapcblackman.bsky.social oh just realise we'd already connected here! So lovely to have met you in person at Ammerdown & to have heard some of your wisdom on nonviolence.

"I've never said we should deport whole communities" - R Lowe, 26th May 2026, Spectator "If that means entire communities go, then entire conmunities go. I really don't care" - R Lowe, 25th May 2026, X

Tony Blair on my radio doing full AI Silicon Valley boosterism Unrelatedly…. Tony Blair’s personal think tank has had or been pledged $350 million from Oracle boss Larry Ellison democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...

Just listening to Tony Blair talk about technology. He talks about policy led approach to embracing AI. His problem is that this is a deeply political matter. It promises to completely destroy the cost of labour & consolidate capital in the hands of the techbros. That IS a politics question.

No acknowledgement of the present and future impact of climate change in his wretched screed, either, just relentless advocacy of AI. Understandable, perhaps, given that he's spent the last two decades in an air-conditioned bubble.

That was not a relaxing start to the morning, so here's a foxglove coming into flower.

"The problem with democracy is efficacy & making the big things happen," says Tony Blair, the leader that took us into a big thing called war that killed 187,499 – 211,046 civilians. Source: www.iraqbodycount.org #R4Today

New report "...significant changes in the legal and political landscape surrounding protest in Britain, with expanded anti-protest legislation and the increased use of civil legal mechanisms contributing to harsher penalties for protest-related activity." www.qmul.ac.uk/news/latest-...

"...what does global health response actually look like when the architecture that carried it for a decade is no longer there?" pihcanada.org/news/dr-cass...

Reported Israeli attacks near the Qaraoun Dam are extremely alarming. Relevant here: - specialized IHL rules on dams, the environment, & indispensable objects (discussed in a post linked below on the Nova Kakhovka disaster) - core IHL rules (esp. proportionality) 1/3 www.cnn.com/2026/05/25/w...

“Violations go unanswered. Impunity is spreading." Interconnected challenges are "placing intense pressure on the multilateral system established to prevent a third world war". news.un.org/en/story/202...

Remember how 2 out 5 arrested for the 2024 summer riots (racially targeted violence) had been subject to a domestic abuse report? 1 out of 5 people arrested have **since** been reported to the police for domestic abuse too. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The US struck #Iran again after nearly seven weeks of ceasefire. ACLED records two US attacks in #Hormozgan province on 25 May, including strikes on Larak Island and Bandar Abbas. Track the latest developments: acleddata.com/iran-crisis-...

A UK maximum working temp is needed now more than ever. Really support this petition to encourage the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) protect people from unsafe conditions at work. www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/we...

Magnifica Humanitas "appeals for the safeguarding of humanity, promotion of truth, dignity of work, social justice, and peace." www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

I guess I am live-tweeting my reading of the Magnifica Humanitas

109: 🔥 "the common good means exposing this new form of epistemic, economic and political asymmetry and naming the new monopolies of AI." (I am sure there will be a "new monopolies of AI" conference somewhere in 2027.)

I couldn't actually explain how most everyday tech works so not sure what human evolution has to do with it. I am at least able to imagine with my non-Übermensch mind that any technology in the hands of the few mostly for the few may not be a good thing.

Bugle (Ajuga) in the grounds of the Ammerdown Centre, a place offering hospitality, peace, & reconciliation in Somerset. #WildflowerHour

Speedwell in a hedge #Devon #WildflowerHour

"Wallflower, wallflower | Won’t you dance with me?" Happy 85th Bob Dylan. #WildflowerShow #WildflowerHour

"25°C, perhaps, an estimate. Heat mitigated by broken cloud cover and irregular corridors of hedges and trees. I should be another three miles east by now. I should have taken more water. The minutes lost to calculation, adjustment, resource management." longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/slow-netwo...

Deeply grateful to at least be able to share this info with a sixteen year old relative today via his extremely worried Grandma. beforeyousignup.info

Revealed: Palantir’s NHS tech is ten times slower than current system democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-p...

I don't want to use a loo that transwomen are or feel excluded from. Such a banal thing to say but it really is as simple as that.

"As another Ebola outbreak unfolds, we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past — valuing some lives more visibly than others..."

The petition we're co-sponsoring with 12 other peace/faith groups has soared past the 1000 signatures mark. If you want to send a 'No to Military Conscription' message to Number 10 (whoever ends up there) and the Defence Secretary, it just takes a minute. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/no...

"You've probably had enough, shall I call you a cab?"

Shameful and unacceptable. 👇 President Trump is threatening to cut off life-saving humanitarian aid to Zambia unless its government hands over valuable mineral resources to the U.S. "This agreement would be extortion, not foreign policy."

Grenfell was caused by a chain of failures by governments, "dishonest" companies and shortcomings in the fire service, a public inquiry found. Grenfell United said the development was "an important step in a process that has already taken far too long" (the CPS may still decide not to prosecute) 👇🏽

Our statement following the publication of the Grenfell criminal investigation timeline today 💚

Hey - we’re Emili, Michael, Tamar, David, Dora, Rebecca, and Max from Na’amod. We just arrived in Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank.

"The local people know there is something going on when the internet and phone signal drops dead, they say." Suffolk life next to US nuclear airbase Lakenheath. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Becoming Foxglove in bud #Dartmoor #Devon #WildflowerHour

Tiny offering of tiny chickweed. #wildflowerhour #tinyplants #Bloomscrolling

"Epidemic of Ebola Disease caused by Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda determined a public health emergency of international concern." WHO www.who.int/news/item/17...

Less closer ties, more closer hostilities. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...