@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Jan 29 PinkNews: Despite strong lobbying efforts by anti-trans Sex Matters, human rights body Council of Europe votes 3-to-1 to ban ‘conversion therapy’ across its 26 member states. UK Labour MP Kate Osborn brought the motion & 10k ppl in UK wrote in support of it.

Rough day for Sex Matters

Just saying @carolinerussell.bsky.social is ace. The effort & genuine care she shows in horrific circumstances like these... Compare to the endemic inaction at roads like this, the shrugged shoulders at junctions like the ones that bookend this road, despite clear patterns of collisions, the idea...

No surprise that the Doomsday Clock ticked closer to Armageddon today. Nuclear powers Russia, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, India & the US have all been sabre-rattling their world-ending nuclear weapons. At 85 seconds, it’s closer, than ever, in history*

Perhaps we should ban adults from social media

In case you missed it, Utrecht, Netherlands has begun building the largest Dutch “car-free” neighbourhood. 12K people 6K homes 1.8K social rental homes 1.5 mid-range rental & affordable owner-occupied homes 21.5K bike parking spaces 250 shared cars 2 parcel hubs Parking structures on the edge.

Our analysis at @bellingcat.com on the killing of Alex Pretti breaks down the video evidence. He never reached for his gun. Agents sprayed/tackled him while his hands were up. He was disarmed before he was shot. The first shot came from an agent firing at him. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/01...

Hello to new followers (no idea quite how you're finding me, but... hello!). This is the kind of thing I do. And my best work, every week, is in my newsletter, which you can subscribe to here: diagramclub.substack.com Anyway, thank you for following.

Not one mention of climate change or resilience in this report.

The enemy - how they travel

Not long until our yearly social / fundraising céilidh! www.tickettailor.com/events/hackn... Dinner and dancing, perfect to chase away the January blues.

But when I asked an organizer what they wanted to see out of press coverage, they told me they wanted people to see the beautiful things they are building here, and not just the worst stories of the worst of ICE's crimes. What people are doing here is beautiful. It's a tragic beauty, but a real one

Loved every minute of the Yorkshire tour - thanks to everyone who showed up this weekend! And love this picture that Anna, age 7, gave me as I was leaving 💚

You can not reason with a leader who should be in a padded cell.

FOI reveals that within the first week in office, Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson requested a meeting with Sex Matters to discuss "mutual priorities and ways to work together going forward"

"Court considers that society may reasonably be expected to tolerate a certain inconvenience to enable individuals to live in dignity and worth in accordance with the sexual identity chosen by them at great personal cost" - Goodwin, 2002.

Following coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.

Heidi Alexander: “protect the right to protest in Iran!” Everyone Else: “what about the right to protest in the UK, which your government is working hard to remove…?”

Just donated to this. The Trans Solidarity Alliance @transsolidarity.bsky.social did vital work in 2025. Unlike the transphobes they don't have wealthy fascist donors to support their work, so please contribute to their fundraiser and lets get them some of the funds they need for 2026.

I’ve seen first-hand the utter devastation road deaths cause — families shattered in seconds, lives permanently changed. To dismiss this as an “utter non-problem” is wrong and deeply offensive. The acceptance of this devastation reflects a lack of knowledge and ambition. We can do so much better.

We have learned that Sex Matters - the anti trans group whose activities you are obliged to fund through your taxes - is being investigated by the Charity Commission. goodlaw.social/j4r1

An actual headline on the actual BBC news app. Have I jumped into a parallel universe?

Kenny Everett's Radio Days archive.org/details/kenn...

If they want clarity on trans people they can start by telling the truth about biology. open.substack.com/pub/danielli...

“Dignity and respect”

How do we stop junior doctors leaving for Australia asks The Times which has called their strike for better pay "reckless and self-indulgent".

Didn't realise this was Martin Parr. If you feel like being happy, watch this 20min documentary on the gloriously unchanging Teddy Gray's sweet factory in Dudley. How they make Humbugs and rock will blow your prefrontal cortex like a 3 amp fuse. youtu.be/OU4m3TF8Xbc?...

Lush co-founder happy to be 'woke', tells bigots not to come in https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/12/23/lush-mark-constantine-woke/?utm_content=1766636400&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

Very telling how The Telegraph positions kindness as an unaffordable luxury. Personally I see The Telegraph as an unaffordable luxury, and their circulation figures back me up.

Oh GB News. Have a day off and enjoy a mince pie. How dare I talk positively about migration & refugee rights at this time of year that should be about *checks notes* good tidings and warm wishes. Tune in at 3pm to watch and judge for yourself. Merry Christmas everyone!

Bowls England claims that lawn bowls is a "gender affected sport", and states that "scientific evidence shows that gender-affirming hormone therapy in trans- women does not fully moderate the male advantage", yet fails to provide any citations. They have now adopted an anti-trans policy:

Uber and Lyft rolling Baidu robotaxis into London next year

Now is a VERY good time to re-read my 2022 article in @opendemocracy.net about Mirror Propaganda… www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/anti...

It is unethical and illegal to repeat animal tests for the safety of chemicals where the data exists or the tests add no new knowledge. So why are we treating children worse than lab rats, when GAC is known to be safe and effective? That’s unethical.

Stunning

Andromeda and Sprites over Australia apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25121... What’s happening over that tree? Two very different things. On the left is the Andromeda galaxy, an object that is older than humanity and will last billions of years into the future.

The story of Farage and Putin, told by British-Ukrainian soldier Shaun Pinner on a destroyed apartment block in Kyiv.

‘Tomorrow shall be my dancing day’ is a vastly underrated carol

Fuck on a google search for the report, the SM website is the first link and forms the AI summary. Sigh.

Today the government announced their strategy on combating Male Violence Against Women and Girls. They released it on the day that parliament finishes for the year, after delaying it multiple times.

The reason they're so focused on trans teens is that people who transition younger typically blend into society better. To the extent that they're willing to tolerate our existence in society at all, they'd rather we be easily identified by our appearance/voices/etc.

Cycling UK have recently stated that their annual 100 Women in Cycling award won’t include any trans women or non-binary Over 50 current nominees and previous winners have rejected or returned their awards. I know many of them personally I’m proud of my cycling sisters. All of them

Why lie? www.chathamhouse.org/events/all/r...

UK to rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme

Nebelkrähe mit ihrem Snowboard 🏂

Festive figs and wreaths in doors around Columbia Road flower market this morning

@robinince.bsky.social such a brave thing you have done. Thank you so much for standing up for what is right. It’s so sad that it comes at such a personal cost. If, as it appears tonight, the lawyers come for you then it will be a pleasure to chip in to a crowd funder

First, she frames the issue as a conflict between transgender rights and women's rights. Where is the evidence for that broad framing of conflict? Where is the evidence that women as a group see there as being a clash? None is given and women remain supportive of trans rights.