Scholasticide

Did you know that the Burkina Faso military with its allied militias and an Al Qaeda-linked armed group have killed more than 1,800 civilians and forcibly displaced tens of thousands since 2023? New, 316-page report by @hrw.org, out now ⤵️ www.hrw.org/news/2026/04...

60 students and 5 faculty members have so far been killed in USraeli attacks on Iranian universities, as Aljazeera reports: www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/...

As a fact check here, Allah isn't the "Muslim name for God" it's the Arabic word for God, which is also used by Arab Christians, and Iranians are as I understand it just as likely to use the Farsi word Khoda (not a cognate with God, despite the superficial similarity.)

Israel detonated Naqoura village in South Lebanon

The issue as ever with Trump is decorum

Rice's whales existed before humans now trump could make them extinct www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Unless we are willing to own the violence of our tradition and actively make it nonviolent, this deathly ambivalence will persist.

@nytimes.com's Christina Goldbaum and @dguttenfelder.bsky.social on Israeli efforts to cleanse Shi'a from south Lebanon, including direct calls to Christian and Druze communities directing them to expel their displaced Shi'a neighbors: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/w...

“What he really wanted, Trump said, was soaring black spikes baking in the hot sun — electrified, if possible — and tall enough that bloodied corpses of attempted climbers might dangle above the desert floor and send a message to others: do not defy me.” www.defiance.news/p/the-casual...

Trump described to me on Air Force One on January 10, 2019 a way to casually crucify migrants on the border wall. He’s not Christian. He’s inhuman. His threat today on Easter to bomb Iranian civilians is consistent with his character.

Lebanon says at least 54 health workers are among more than 1,400 people killed by Israel during the current invasion. Human rights groups say first responders are being targeted — something Israel denies. n.pr/3PSCXKb

The hen harrier - one of the most persecuted birds of prey in the UK - especially in the #YorkshireDales The average lifespan of a hen harrier in UK is 121 days - whereas worldwide it is 7 years. Sign our petition for 3 key law reforms to protect #birdsofprey actionnetwork.org/petitions/he...

🎁🔗 www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Countries reporting fuel shortages so far Ethiopia Vietnam Philippines Indonesia Australia Thailand Sri Lanka India Pakistan Bangladesh

Another case of the BBC showing inordinate concern for the well-being of US combatants (framed as “ours”) while Iranian and Lebanese civilians get slaughtered

A joyous Easter to all who mark it. And let us remember the lesson of Easter- an individual living under occupation, incarcerated, tortured and then executed by empire--who lives again and sparks a revolution.

Lebanon is 33% Christian. Israel is illegally invading Lebanon & bombing Christian villages. Moreover, Israel has warned Lebanese Christians & Druze to forbid any Muslim from hiding in their homes & Israeli troops are now hunting for Muslims hiding in attics of Christians. These Are War Crimes.

an exhibition that will be everywhere across all media and largely define London’s cultural and tourist offer in the autumn: salary c.25% lower than median for London, and barely scraping above national average

This sums up the powers of the Home Office in general, but also how further to the right it has shifted under Mahmood. Even Conservatives allowed for votes on changes this wide ranging and draconian. Starmer and Mahmood have tried to backdoor them because they know they'd be voted down in a second.

Re-posting for the new month (and April paydays!) Please donate or share to help my wee pal Isaac afford healthcare.

Good to see pushback against Home Office’s anti-integration approach. Labour MPs seeing now how anti-migrant forces in the state fight dirty. They hate serious debate - or any challenge; because they don’t have a coherent approach or rationale. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

‘India is going to face a food crisis’: Farmers panic over fertiliser shortages amid Iran war

Utterly barbaric conduct.

This is Bad, potentially extremely escalatory, & this sort of civilian economic-industrial targeting to cause civilian pain & degrade overall recovery is not legitimate war aim. nuclear war urban-industrial targeting vibes in miniature.

I am again reminded of @kkdumez.bsky.social's observation: "More than any other religious demographic in America, white evangelical Protestants support preemptive war, condone the use of torture, and favor the death penalty. They are more likely than members of other faith groups to own a gun..."

"What’s happening is the destruction of an entire community, a way of life and a deep connection to our land.” "A convoy of vehicles evacuating residents from the Christian village of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon passes through the Naqura area [File: Kawnat Haju/AFP]" aje.news/9i4iv5?updat...

Not an original comment, but a salient one. US Department of Homeland Security would absolutely detain Jesus if he turned up now and the evangelical Christian crowd would utterly condemn him as "woke".

Every European leader and senior foreign policy official MUST be confronted with this reporting and pushed to give clear statements—on the record—re. where they stand on such monstrous treatment of civilians.

Worth keeping in mind that Israel's society has been heavily militarised for at least three generations and in that process has vilified and demonised every aspect of Palestinian existence. The overwhelming support for every war it fights and crime it commits doesn't come from nowhere.

ICE has kept a disabled double amputee prisoner for over 14 months. Rodney Taylor has been denied access to his prosthetic legs. Forced to crawl across dirty floors to access food. Placed in solitary. Denied medical accommodations. They’re killing him & he needs the community to make noise!

The rise of Christian Nationalism has been brewing for much longer than you might think.

L’Ethiopie frappée de plein fouet par la crise du carburant

🚨 BSA POSTDOCTORAL AWARD 🚨 The British Society for Aesthetics invites applications for a two-year postdoctoral award in philosophical aesthetics, to the value of £30,000 per annum with up to £3,000 additional geographical allowance, to start in the Autumn term in 2026.

I agree with this essay, though my experience dealing with policy makers is that they’re actually more ahead of the game on this than they’re getting credit for. I think a follow up essay has to contend with building the moral leadership to be trusted to lead through a polycrisis.

🚀 Call for contributions now open! 'Conjonctures de l’Afrique centrale 2026' is now accepting submissions. Share bold insights and fresh perspectives on Central Africa’s evolving dynamics. 🗓 Submission deadline: 16 April 2026 🔗 More details and guidelines: https://bit.ly/call-conjonctures

Israel has explicitly warned Christian and Druze residents in southern Lebanon not to hide Shi'ite Muslim residents as Israeli forces advance. Israeli troops will be searching the homes of Christians looking for Muslims they may hiding. Sounds familar. 😔 #IsraeliTerrorism #LebanonUnderAttack

He couldn’t see. He didn’t speak English. He was left alone in winter darkness. His death is now officially a homicide. If this doesn’t shake you, what will.

Two-year-old Kaleth is being locked away at the Dilley trailer prison. He is getting sicker with each passing day. He will not eat the food CoreCivc serves, which detainees have said sometimes has mold and worms. He now has a fever.

There is still good in the world

Great article by Ali Vaez. Gift link. In essence, Trump is now in the same position as Putin: able to cause massive damage, but unable to make the enemy give in. He will have to make a deal, and the bitter irony is that, for all his origin story, Trump is incapable of really making a deal.

18+ chance to do solidarity work in a Jewish framework learning organizing + showing up for Palestinians + justice: "meaningful volunteer work w/educational, community + human rights orgs w/Palestinians + Israelis in + around Jerusalem.. in the movement for self-determination for all. "

How long before your particular brand of christianity is no longer acceptable to the regime? It's not "if." it's "when." Worth noting that the Klan has a long history of being anti-catholic, and who are these people but Klansmen without their hoods?

I would be all in favor of a definitive severing of ties here but I, a white lady at a hippie leftist parish, am not going to be the person the return of “Catholics aren’t really Christian” is going to be worst for. it’s going to feed right into “immigrants aren’t really people”

like Hegseth isn’t talking about JD Vance

I would love to see a return to the American Catholicism of the 60s and 70s with priests getting arrested in antiwar protests, if we could do it without the whole “every single thing about how you guys handle sexuality is traumatizing” business

now that the Christian Right no longer feels they need the political heft of the Catholic Church to get a pro-life SCOTUS, the post-Roe alliance is fracturing and they’re suddenly remembering all their spiciest theology about the pope being the antichrist, conveniently in time for a pope they hate

“Disabled women are increasingly seen as stats and stereotypes – reduced entirely to our disabilities, or robbed of the dignity of being believed we have one.” Me on why it’s time to hear from disabled women in our own words. (Luckily, I wrote a book on it.) www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Its genuinely one of the greatest triumphs of (evil) ecumenism. Its strategy also means that if the need for shared policy-based campaigns disappear, the two sides will likely turn on one another again, echoing critiques of ecumenism that focuses on superficial alignments and ignores deeper tensions