East Asian Studies is being gutted at Sheffield - all staff at risk with 8.6 FTE proposed to go (a third of us). Biggest cuts in Chinese and Japanese Studies. We’ll be taking a few days to process. Solidarity to Materials and Chemistry colleagues who are also dealing with similarly bad news.

In Saudi Arabia’s Khamis Mushait prison, 200 Ethiopian men are awaiting execution. Most were sentenced in mass trials without legal representation, according to Ethiopia’s Tigray Youth Affairs Bureau. 🧵1/5

We’ve been doggedly reporting on Palantir’s contracts with UK state…& this latest one with Met police is both creepy & opaque. Met has used Palantir to spy on its own officers. If it can do this to its own employees…what about the rest of us? By @mc00.bsky.social & @luciaoc.bsky.social

Tonight's the night we/I should be following Paul's tweets/posts from one of his legendary Eurovision parties, matching his comments on performances against mine (songs that is, as opposed to hotness of tte male singers/dancers) @professor-dave.bsky.social

"... there are incubators which have to be manually ventilated in the blackouts. There are newborns fighting for their lives while the government of the United States decides which countries can sell us oil and which cannot." westenglandbylines.co.uk/news/world/o...

New research shows that more people abandoned Labour because they were too tough on immigration - and because of their support for Israel - than because they were too soft on immigration.

Our breakdown of Wes Streeting’s donors has been doing the rounds online for the last year. Now we’ve updated it – with another £55,000 from OPD Group.

UK firefighters called to one lithium-ion battery fire every five hours

Meanwhile, I'm still reeling from the fact that Richard Tice can't find it in him to condemn someone for saying that Nigerians should be melted down to fill potholes.

For context: Chemsketch was a free (for academic use?) chemical structure editor. Revvity bought Chemdraw, a commerical editor, few years back and took it from perpetual license to annual subscription and ramped up prices massively. Now they're buying up whatever competition there still was.

Bloody hell.

This.

This and First Past the Post don't go together.

In Havering, Reform won 71% of the seats on 36% vote share. In Ealing, Labour won 66% of the seats on 30% of votes. In Westminster, the Tories won 59% of the seats on 35% of the vote. In Sutton, 44% of the vote gave the Lib Dems 93% of the seats. Under FPTP, whoever wins, the voters lose.

The danger is that -without system change- these results will further undermine trust in our democracy and increase nihilism and disengagement. The country needs a National Commission on Electoral Reform: @appgfairelections.bsky.social

In Wigan, Reform got 46% of the vote. That gave them 96% of the seats that were up for election. First Past the Post is not fit for purpose.

As a GP, I am not allowed to receive a pen or post-it note pad from a pharmaceutical company rep Govt banned them in case I was influenced to prescribe medications This should also be banned Influence is being bought in Govt Patients should influence not the healthy & wealthy

Hi! I'm a farmer! This NYT article is sweet, saccharine bullshit. Farmers knew Trump was going to hurt our business. Because he already did a trade war in his 1st term. I even did a video on why so many farmers support Trump, WHILE knowing he'd hurt our farms.

it’s worth reading every word of this brilliant, excoriating column by Fraser Nelson

www.maptap.gg May 1 87🎓 97🔥 93🏆 95🏅 87🎉 Final score: 916

Loving the way Hannah Spencer manages to observe Westminster through the eyes of an ordinary citizen without getting drawn into its bubble. She has her standards, and she doesn't doubt them even when all around her are different. It takes strength to be the odd one out. She's her own woman.

US justice department blocking Met police investigation into Mandelson, reports say – UK politics live

I’ve been hearing so much anger and disappointment from frontline workers about the BBC investigation into fraudulent asylum claims. One of the most damning responses has come from one of the experts they interviewed, solicitor Ana Gonzalez. It’s really worth reading her response in full:

A reminder:

Meta just paid the lowest effective federal tax rate in its history. Thanks to tax breaks and loopholes, it avoided $13.7B in 2025 federal income taxes. But now it's planning to lay off 10% of its global workforce (8,000 people) by May 20 — with more job cuts later this year. Trickle down hoax.

My son Danny is competing for the grand prize in the John Lennon Songwriting competition in the category “Folk”. Please vote for him! You could also win a guitar! jlsc.com/vote.php Here’s a live version ❤️ www.instagram.com/reel/DXHqLPb... You can check him out on dannybradleymusic.com

@stuartcantrill.com sounds like something you'd be interested in - if it were Comté that is.

Number crunching: Iran war From the new Private Eye, out now.

Blood donation completed. First donation in about 20 years but I figured it's never too late to restart (though there is an age cut-off).

Legal eagles noticed, and there’s been SOME mainstream coverage. But overall the political class has underreacted to this month’s OLC opinion, ordered up by Trump or on his behalf, declaring the Presidential Records Act unconstitutional. Things are likely being stolen and/or destroyed *right now*.

I can't stop laughing at this post. It's perfect.

Musings on a day trip to #Scarborough. 1/n Why is the sound quality of onboard train announcements universally rubbish?

@modison.bsky.social not only was Ed Davey a stone's throw from my house today, but also playing chess! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... @markpackuk.bsky.social

I don't suppose he clarified which one?

The West Wing, Series 5 Episode 13. Spookily prescient. In fact watching this series again you can't help but see so many parallels with what's playing out today. Aaron Sorkin must have (had) a time machine.....but he didn't forsee Trump.

FACTCHECK UPDATE: No, the UK can't "be more like Norway" in the North Sea 🇬🇧 extracted most of its oil & gas after privatisation 🇳🇴 has much more left due to state stewardship 🤔Lawson spent UK windfall on tax cuts; Norway got a sovereign wealth fund www.carbonbrief.org/...

"The danger of tanning beds is an actual case of a well-documented, high-quality scientific finding that really has been waiting for government action, in part because of industry pressure." Nah, let's trash-talk vaccines instead.

In 40 years, Daisy never failed an interview, but now when job hunting, she is getting rejected by an algorithm instead of a human | The Ginger Warrior

@theofficialgrb.bsky.social How would you restore these pine cupboard doors? They might have been stripped of paint by dip method, but not treated (as far as I can see). Over 35+ years they've become dry, warped slightly, and also "spotty" (residual oil in the wood?). We don't want to over paint.

less than three months out from the World Cup, Trump touts the presence of ICE agents at airports and says they're "very fertile territory" for arresting foreigners

This guide to Google search is so helpful

@cariouk.bsky.social not looking good so far.....

Two die and 11 seriously ill in meningitis outbreak at University of Kent

NEW: Two senior MOD whistleblowers with inside knowledge of Palantir's systems have come forward to @thenerve.news to say government ministers are ignorant of the grave national security risks the technology poses. Hugely important by @charlienotold.bsky.social www.thenerve.news/p/palantir-t...

Chemistry in current events: the connections between fertilizer, the Haber-Bosch process, and the Persian Gulf. Read this and your knowledge will exceed that of most of our current political leadership after only a few minutes of light work:

Dan Fried with a totally obvious analysis that can't be heard on mainstream US media. Wonder why.

‘Practically nothing less to target’ Trump, 2026 Stalingrad has been 'destroyed and [was] without any further worthwhile targets.’ von Richthofen, (senior Luftwaffe commander), August 1942

These are Olena Udovichenko and her son Hordii. A Russian missile killed them today. Olena was a teacher in a Kharkiv school, Hordii was a second-grader there. Last night, Russia killed 11 people in Kharkiv, including Olena and Hordii. RIP.