Musk frenemy, Trump adjacent oligarch and democracy sceptic Peter Thiel's Palantir wants to become a lifestyle brand. It is not clear from this report if the merch includes a Sam Browne Belt, armband and shirt combi, with the shirts available in a choice of Brown or Black.

Specialist Middle East news source Al-Monitor with an assessment of the impact of the civil war in Sudan on the countrys museums. Amid a refugee crisis reports that some 20 museums have been looted & cultural material, much related to the Kingdom of Kush, is missing with much feared trafficked.

#ItsAllAboutTheHistory #MetalDetecting News According to its own figures released on Social Media more finds were submitted for Export Licences at this year's #Detectival than were recorded by the onsite recording team. It is not known what percentage of finds made overall this represents.

Thank you to everyone who has read and shared our story about the allegations the President of the #EAA supported a campaign pressuring the Executive Board to reverse its Gaza vote. There is now a #WatchingBrief video with a discussion putting the story in context. Please Like Share and Subscribe.

EXCLUSIVE: EAA PRESIDENT ACCUSED OF HELPING ORCHESTRATE PROTEST CAMPAIGN AGAINST HER OWN EXECUTIVE BOARD’S GAZA VOTE thePipeLine with the extraordinary story of how the President of the European Association of Archaeologists is accused of helping orchestrate a campaign to overturn its Gaza vote.

With the defenestration of Jimmy Kimmel, ultimately by the Disney Mouse minions, I guess we are back at the point where the great satirist Peter Cook paid tribute to “...those wonderful Berlin cabarets which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the outbreak of the Second World War."

#PlanningNews Spoiling a Battlefield? It was all done by the planning book rules, but as spoil from #HS2 is dumped on the Registered Battlefield of Edgcote, historian Graham Evans of the Northampton Battlefield Society argues that the protections for #RegisteredBattlefields are not robust enough.

With talk of major inward investment in the North East for the latest industrial trend, AI data centres, substantial grants have been given to two mining heritage sites remembering a previous industrial boom with significant and lasting cultural echoes.

#FreedomOfSpeech News With the evidence of his own "special relationship" projected onto Windsor Castle, it is reassuring to see GOVUK's plan to ensure nothing happens to offend President Trump during his visit is proving so effective.

"This date is hiding one of the most beautiful coincidences we will ever encounter...Those numbers, they tell a story that goes back to ancient Greece." Terrence Blackman, chair of mathematics, Medgar Evers College, New York. I have never been good at maths, but this is rather lovely.

Already on permanent leadership challenge maneuvers, "Honest Bob" Jenrick takes to X-Twitter to co-opt the iconic Spitfire into a piece of performative, patriotic performance art.

"Again and again he (Tommy Robinson aka Stephen Yaxley Lennon and several other aliases) has faced formidable obstacles." Fair... Being repeatedly banged up and having a conviction for possession with intent to supply would be formidable obstacles for most people not on a Far Right media grift.

The living archaeology of the internet that is the Internet Archive, including the invaluable Wayback Machine, seems secure, at least for now, after a confidential settlement between the IA and music publishers.

#FreedomOfSpeech News Under the Trump admin's Executive Order to remove "corrosive ideology" the Washington Post ($) says 4x sources report information relating to slavery is to be removed from historic sites, including Harpers Ferry. Image of formerly enslaved man's scars also to be removed.

New in #thePipeLIne It is Detectival weekend, and "the Woodstock of #MetalDetecting" has again hired finds recorders. thePipeLine reveals FLO's are also attending to conduct "outreach" with the 1000+ detectorists attending and we ask, does this mean the approach of the PAS to rallies is softening?

Great British Cultural Traditions #Flags Smuggling in as many EU flags as possible to the #LastNightOfTheProms.

It's All About (modelling) the History News WHS in crisis advertising rethink for Archaeologists Trowel after Minelab launches its new metal detector.

The National Trust's Head of Comm's Celia Richardson again forced to play Whack-A-Misleading Telegraph Story. BTW: As any Mackem, or anyone Mackem adjacent, spotted instantly, the Telegraph even got the name of the monument wrong.

#HeritageCrime News "The damage was shocking. There were ancient ramparts there from a royal site of about 1,500 years old, about 40% of those had been damaged or wiped out." £25k fine for unauthorised work at Dunmull Hillfort Coleraine.

FAO #EAA French Gov, #UNESCO & the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem intervene to negotiate a brief pause as archaeologists from the French Biblical Archaeological School of Jerusalem (EBAF) forced to evacuate its Gaza store after warning from the IDF that the building housing it had been targeted.

#HeritageCrime News Appearing at Lincoln Crown Court, leading metal detectorist and rally organiser Jason Price of Grantham, Lincolnshire has pleaded guilty to four charges of fraud relating to metal detecting finds. Mr Price will appear for a trial of fact and sentencing on 7 November.

The British Academy Mapping SHAPE project has found opportunities for students to study various Humanities subjects are diminishing in the regions, especially at HE institutions which make offers on lower exam grades thus attracting students from disadvantaged backgrounds. #BonfireOfTheHumanities

Quite right, the difference being of course that the lost rivers are real, whereas... BTW Have you heard about the Glastonbury Bear and the Woolworths Ley Line network? I understand Graham Hancock is writing a book and Jimmy Corsetti is complaining archaeologists are deliberately not excavating.

#Planning News The G1 listed Custom House in the City of London is to become a hotel. The "conservation led" development, which has been welcomed by Historic England, includes curated historical displays, a reshaped public space and disabled access.

A glimpse of the future of HE or a shotgun marriage to cut costs and rescue an institution facing a serious deficit? Or both? Fears for jobs and courses as Greenwich University (formerly Woolwich Poly) effectively takes over the University of Kent, while retaining individual identities, from 2026.

The latest #WatchingBrief update on the #EAA2025 row has gone live. TLDR: We need your help to move the story on. Most importantly, who sent those protest emails to #EAA Board members and what was said which saw a democratic vote reversed? Please Watch, Like & Share. Signal ID: AndyBrockman.25

Remember that $1.5bn settlement in the class action against Anthropic AI? Well it looks like it is not all over as the Federal judge overseeing the case has found faults with the proposed settlement and has told the lawyers to sort them out.

Our full coverage of the #EA2025 row and many more stories about what happens when archaeology meets money and politics, can be found on thePipeLine website. Please pay us a visit, stay, read and share...

Figures from an update to delegates show more than thirty oral presentations at #EA2025 were cancelled at the last minute. Unfortunately no reasons are given for the cancellations, but it is reasonable to assume at least some of them are related to the row over the #EAA's policy on Israel/Gaza.

Mr Soup has thoughts on the #EAA omnishambles and the wider issue of how archaeological bodies respond to real world events (or don't). Expect to hear them in the next #WatchingBrief. But what do you think? Are you happy with how the organisations which represent you talk to you and the world?

It isn't over 'till it's over...and it won't be over for the Executive Board of the #EAA until all procedural ways of forcing the body to address its handling of the Gaza vote at #EAA2025 have been exhausted. Archaeologists Against Apartheid and Genocide are calling for a special meeting.

"They call him Britain Trump." President Donald Trump on Boris Johnson becoming UK Prime Minister. Moral vacuum, serial shagger and habitual liar who has used high political office to suck up to rich and powerful people and enrich himself. Yup, more proof here Mr Johnson is "Britain Trump".

Autumn, the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and of opaquely funded, Tufton Street adjacent, would be entryist group Restore Trust trying to get its rosta of candidates elected to the National Trust council. Expect hit jobs on vegan scones in the Telegraph. NT members, you know what to do.

Unlike Greece and Sweden, which have outlawed the practice, Defra has ruled that the "destructive" practice of bottom trawling can continue, even in protected areas, because a ban would be "disproportionate".

On Monday [8/9/2025] President Trump spoke for over an hour at Washington's Museum of the Bible. However, POTUS missed a trick. There was no mention of #HeritageCrime, which is a shame as the Hobby Lobby funded museum is infamous for having to return thousands of trafficked and stolen artefacts.

Just as major archaeological bodies seem to run from the idea, the RSPB recognises it exists in the political arena and welcomes new Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, among whose roles will be to drive policy on the Environment in planning.

Archaeology must exist in and navigate a complicated real world. Discuss FAO the Executive Board of the European Association of Archaeologists #EAA.

New in thePipeLine: “CRITICAL REFLECTION” PROMISED AS EAA EXECUTIVE BOARD OUTLINES RESPONSE TO HANDLING OF GAZA ROW After #EAA2025 the Executive Board promises "critical reflection" on handling of Gaza row, but are the #EAA's current team and structures capable of resolving the situation?

Following Friday's Business Meeting #EAA SMT released new statement on the #EAA2025 Gaza Row... The statement says in part, "Going forward, the EAA must design a larger project, in which we revisit the nature of politics and political activism with regards to the EAA Statutes, spirit and ethos."

#HeritageCrime News CADW claims "40 to 50 incidents a year" of heritage crime at sites it operates and "in the low hundreds" of incidents across the historical environment in Wales.

We have had a report that the closing cerimony of #EAA2025 was taken off line and was in person only. No confirmation and, even if it was, whether it was a technical issue or a deliberate choice by the EAA organisers. Can anyone confirm/explain? DM in confidence or Signal ID AndyBrockman.25

"Undeterred by the fact no new party really exists yet, two factions have already been announced ..." "Could it fuck it all up? That too is possible." Essential reading about the genesis of the Jezzbollah.

New in thePipeLine: EAA GAZA U-TURN TIMELINE OFFERS MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS The beleaguered Executive Board of the #EAA has a new timeline trying making it look like the wronged and bullied party, but it doesn't explain who allegedly bullied its members into reversing a democratic vote.

Anthropic appear to have settled the US class action because it was found to have used pirated works. The court found the actual training model used by Anthropic to train its LLM to be legal.

Q: What do you call an AI company which agrees to pay authors whose work it stole $1.5 billion? A: A start.

Remember the days when rogue officials in a US Administration had to divert funds illegally to intervene clandestinely against Central American drug cartels and we depended on Harrison Ford refusing to dance the Potomac Two Step to get the bad guys to resign?

If I was going for a cheap joke I would ask if I could borrow a protractor to measure the precise angle of that right arm... #NigelFarage salutes the Reform UK audience with his arm at Half Musk (or is it full Full Musk?)

Sky News gets to enjoy all the fun of the political equivalent of Transfer Deadline Day and the shock news is the predicted transfer of Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy (who also does heritage) to the back benches hasn't happened.

With the number of stage pyrotechnics being blown the production team at the Reform UK conference in Birmingham seem determined to make Nigel Farage and his support act Nadine "Dynamite" Dorries look like a Spinal Tap tribute act.

In other news Nigel Farage is dialling up his inner Trumpian demagogue in Birmingham. (Yes he is actually in the UK at least for today) I find myself agreeing with him for once... This country has never been in more danger in my lifetime, but not for the reasons he is stating.