To understand the catastrophic turn in U.S. health policy, follow the money paulkrugman.substack.com/p/how-the-ka...

Wishing a happy and prosperous New Year to all our students, staff and alumni celebrating, whether you’re enjoying Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year, Losar, Seollal, Tết Nguyên Ðán, Tsagaan Sar or another festival! 🎊

Meta is putting a "Name Tag" feature in Ray-Bans - facial recognition through the glasses' camera. You look at someone, AI tells you who they are. In an internal document, the company wrote that the timing is good because civil society groups are busy with politics and won't cause problems.

This is the Gov looking for your input on the BBC. It takes a while to complete (15/20 mins) but it’s pretty comprehensive and covers most aspects. Please share. I’m surprised many people haven’t seen it yet. www.gov.uk/government/c...

Just checking, it's now ok to flee your homeland, because you're afraid for your safety, and seek refuge in another Country? Glad we've cleared that up. Let's hear no more about immigration and refugees then.

I cannot overstate how good this account is

This colossal loss to all Americans was caused by the extremists who gave seized control of our public health system. It will cause Americans to suffer and die.

I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.

Anyone who enjoys a splenetic review will appreciate Mark Kermode in full sail.

"It’s the pussy-grabbers’ world – we just live in it. The only difference is you can now see it laid out in black and white." #IfYouReadOneThingToday

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

Zero net migration would shrink UK economy by 3.6%. Higher taxes to maintain public services. UK has 3 working age people for every one pensioner, could be 2:1 by 2050. Low birth rate. Can't sustain economy without immigration. Xenophobia preventing honest debate.

Had to buy more biscuits today.

Three UK research councils suspend funding opportunities “Temporary block on grant applications by MRC, BBSRC and EPSRC heightens concerns over funding cuts”

This sums it up.

Sadiq Khan calls for progressives to “fight back and champion the benefits of legal migration” in Fabian conference speech. He warns of the “construction sector grinding to a halt, care homes left understaffed, our universities badly hit, and even greater challenges for the national finances”.

Board of Peace - Season 1

My time in @martinsteinegger.bsky.social's group is ending, but I’m staying in Korea to build a lab at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine. If you or someone you know is interested in molecular machine learning and open-source bioinformatics, please reach out. I am hiring! mirdita.org

Just spotted that 25k of you here are now receiving these. So thanks for keeping your letterboxes open and your doormats clear. You keep reading them, I’ll keep sending them. Cheers, T.

🌟 2026 Nucleic Acids Research Database issue 🧬 182 papers, 84 new databases, plus Breakthrough Articles on JoGo (global long‑read haplotypes) and So3D (3D spatial genomics). Browse the issue and Editorial: academic.oup.com/nar/issue/54... academic.oup.com/nar/article/... @danielrigden.bsky.social

The new 2026 NAR Nucleic Acids Research Database Issue is now out! 🎉 Take a look at the Editorial here academic.oup.com/nar/article/... and browse the whole Issue here academic.oup.com/nar/issue/54...

1/ Something which I don't think gets articulated clearly often enough is that a system where countries generally respect international sovereignty and territorial integrity is not pure charity or morality by the United States, but in its direct interests. Despite it being the strongest bear.

Very sad to hear about the passing of Peer Bork, one of true giants of computational biology www.embl.org/news/embl-an...

🔵 This week's Tom the Dancing Bug - A BUSY, BUSY ICE ENFORCEMENT OPERATION with apologies to Richard Scarry - Brought to you by the rough and ready Inner Hive, including long-time member Brady Marsh and new member SquirrelSaver7. ( bit.ly/theInnerHive ) - READ IT RIGHT HERE👇

This from former British diplomat @alexhh.bsky.social, who now is now based in the US, really hits home about the nightmare currently playing out in Trump's America bylinetimes.com/2026/01/15/a...

If the UK government had a Culture Secretary, that person would be in a position to take a view about whether child porn on demand was a good thing, or a bad thing. thecritic.co.uk/brin...

It's now unconscionable for the government to be posting on X. X is not a neutral utility, it is far, far darker: an environment that shapes behaviour, rewards cruelty, and normalises abuse. @theleaduk.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/theleadu...

Translated from the original German

podcasts

There is, to my mind, no justification for the continued use by the UK Government of X as a platform for official comms. There hasn't been for some time, in fact, but if the latest developments around AI-generated image abuse and CSAM don't change the policy I really don't know what will.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭 𝐗/𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐰. Musk’s platform is proving itself a vile cesspit: its AI generating sexually explicit images of children is horrifying. Every day we tolerate this, we weaken our democracies and endanger our future. www.newsweek.com/grok-apology...

A List of Predictions Made in 1926 About 2026 🧵

This year has been brutal for the #climate movement. Rollbacks, repression, & outright denial, especially in the US, have made progress feel fragile & uneven. Which is exactly why it matters to pause & look back at what did move forward in 2025. Here are 12 real wins 🏆, one for each month 🧵⬇️

Just a gif of the EU flag projected onto the London Eye as part of Mayor Sadiq Khan's London's New Year's Day fireworks 😀 The UK is £90 billion a year poorer because of Brexit i.e. tax rises and spending cuts, it's absurd One day soon the madness will end and the UK will #RejoinEU ☺️

Files on Andrew’s activities as trade envoy withheld by the government. Once again even disgraced royals are protected by the state. What’s there to hide? It’s more important than ever that transparency reigns with the Royal Family. And it never does. www.thetimes.com/article/c695...

So Boris Johnson, Prince Phillip, Andrew Bonar Law, Freddie Mercury, George I, George II, Richard E Grant, Douglas Carswell, Rudyard Kipling, Cliff Richard, Joanna Lumley and Spike Milligan weren't British? Interesting www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

I thought I’d share a few of my favourite photos by other people that I’ve seen on this platform in 2025. A slowly evolving thread. 🧵

St Mary's Church, Huntingfield, Suffolk, UK. The ceiling is considered a masterpiece of Victorian decoration and was created by largely unrecognised artist Mildred Holland in 1859-60, the wife of the church rector #WomensArt

So 2025 turned out to be a big year for de novo antibody design! Here are thoughts and predictions on the state of de novo antibody design heading into 2026 🧵

I genuinely once taught a child called Nausea. Apparently the (native speaker English) parents had seen the word in a leaflet somewhere during the pregnancy, thought it sounded nice and did no further research into what it meant before naming their baby.

Europe’s holiday wish? More speed, more options, more time for YOU. While many are winding down, Europe is gearing up: a major high-speed rail plan is set to transform travel by 2040. Here’s what’s coming ↓

Not many things in life will have you pumping your fist in the air, but watching little Tommy Robinson’s (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s) face and bravado drop when he gets called out for his racism and hypocrisy by boxer Ty Mitchell is one of them. This is glorious. 🔥

New York City, NY USA 📸©️Phil Penman #liminalphotography, #urbanwinterscape

A Tunicate #Salp’s Last Supper. A swimming smorgasbord wrapped in glassy flesh #photography #UnderwaterPhotography Link for more #photos and information: mossandfog.com/a-salps-last...

The EMDB wishes you a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and we are delighted to share our jointly designed EMDB/PDBe Christmas card with you. It has been a busy year, we look forward to seeing you in the New Year here! Card: A mixture of #cryoEM and X-ray diffraction structures.

Turns out all the flag waving and shouting isn’t for King and Country. Well ours anyway… So just which country is Yaxley Lennon and his buddies in Reform working for?

Haha. See also journals.iucr.org/m/issues/202...

2016 Daily Mail: We want foreigners out! We don’t care if it makes us poorer. Brexit means Brexit! 2025 Daily Mail: Foreigners are leaving Starmer’s Britain because this country is poor and shit! This country would be so much better off without this hypocritical, incendiary, irresponsible rag.