The UK has 160 black professors (25% are women) out of a total of 22,885. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) offers funding opportunities, 81% of awards go to white applicants, 1% to black. The statistics are likely to discourage black scholars from pursuing academic/science careers. Need action.

Group of soldiers announce the removal of President Patrice Talon and all state institutions.

Disaster unfolding in Thailand with background global heating at ~1.5°C. “Crisis has hit about 2 million people and left an entire southern city under water.” www.scmp.com/week-as... #ClimateCrisis

So much for the years attempting to ‘decolonise the curriculum’ . With more and more people ‘sold’ to one of the biggest epistemological flops of all time, I wonder if this‘decolonise’ wasn’t but another white saviour mid-life crisis. This long read is a must.

Climate action is now mostly national implementation rather than international negotiations. The upcoming climate negotiations at least got China to put forward a new pledge (NDC); now let's see them implement. Can Brazil crowd in $ for forest conservation? We shall see.

The Vietnamese Bach Ma Mountain Peak station recorded one-day rainfall of 1,739 mm - close to the global one-day record and perhaps a new record for the northern hemisphere. It is part of a deluge Viet Nam has seen in October, shattering 35 precip records. e.vnexpress.net/news/news/en...

🌊 The Arctic is melting fast. A cargo ship just sailed from China to the UK via the Arctic for the first time, taking half the usual time. Of course, what looks like a shortcut is really a warning: climate change is redrawing our planet’s map. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

I’d say this is a must read by @rahmstorf.bsky.social - and ends with a warning that this is not purely “an academic discussion without major consequences.” Completely agree.

It's weird - but now in Oslo, there's so many EVs that you notice the noise and the smell from individual ICE cars, and you realise how much we've been normalising it for ever. You can smell them half a street away. And inside parking lots are just *quiet*.

Sickening how the #BBC is giving live coverage to that Kirk guy death! Don’t be surprised if in a couple of years UK will become a fully fledged fascist government.

#Pakistan could then start to formally acknowledge the 1971 genocide during the war of independence. Likely not to happen, of course.

Following the double attack on a hospital killing the sick, medics, rescuers and journalists amongst others and as people starve in Gaza, when will governments move beyond hollow condemnation?

All correct.

"What if the real doomer scenario is that we pollute the internet and the planet, reorient our economy and leverage ourselves, outsource big chunks of our minds, realign our geopolitics and culture, and fight endlessly over a technology that never comes close to delivering on its grandest promises?"

Serbia signs $1.63bn arms deal with Israeli company Elbit Systems - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/serbia-signs-163bn-arms-deal-israeli-company-elbit-systems

This must be such a good book. On the list!

After the anti-liberal Hungarian government published the Pink Education Report questioning women‘s right to enter higher education, I wrote that the next step will be not to allow women to vote. Voilà!

Barely an hour ago, Palestinian journalist Anas Al-Sharif warned us all: “If this madness doesn’t end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop.” Israel just killed him.

Countries now suspending selling arms for an invasion of #Gaza. Now that the #genocide is established. How far can hypocrisy go? How far more? #FreePalestine. From the river to the ocean.

South African study finds 4 low-income communities can’t cope with global warming: what needs to change theconversation.com/south-africa...

“This is about defiance. It’s about doing the right thing... And even if we fail, at the very least, we didn’t contribute to the problem.” These words aren't defeatist, but a realist expression of our choices: give up, or go down fighting with a chance. ✊️ *Must-read* article.

This may change how hitherto humans have related with the geologic features of the planet. Scary.

The police (wrongly) inform a peaceful protestor that holding a Palestinian flag and signs deploring genocide is an offence under the Terrorism Act. This is the deranged policing environment the government has created.

On how AI is leading to academic censorship… as well….

Small Investment, Big Reward: Oil Giants Dumped $19 Million Into Trump's Inaugural Fund www.commondreams.org/news/big-oil...

Ten Palestinians killed waiting for rations in Gaza, adding to nearly 800 similar deaths in six weeks, according to UN.

“The figures are stark: If the world’s militaries were a single country, they’d be the fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, producing some 5.5% of annual emissions. That’s because it takes billions of gallons of fuel to power a modern military”

Children in England ‘living in almost Dickensian levels of poverty’

Melting glaciers and ice caps could unleash wave of volcanic eruptions, study says www.theguardian.com/environment/...

As I'm waiting to board the plane to go back to the UK, I've written a few impressions on the last weeks in Serbia. janabacevic.net/2025/07/03/r...

V&A announces details for David Bowie Centre

‘Completely unexpected’: Antarctic sea ice may be in terminal decline due to rising Southern Ocean salinity theconversation.com/completely-u...

Ah, yes, nothing like a cheerful photo of people playing in a fountain to go with the news that it’s 46°C Climate collapse or vibes...which is it? Get a grip @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Thermal sand batteries are scalable and can be installed anywhere. They provide an excellent complement to chemical battery storage. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨🔋

The ongoing marine heatwave in the Mediterranean Sea is one of the the largest marine anomalies observed globally

Hope.