Experts feared it would take 193 years to reduce London's deadly levels of NO₂ air pollution to legal levels. This week Mayor Sadiq Khan announced his team had defied the howls of pro-fossil fuel and motoring lobbyists to achieve the life-saving target in just 9 YEARS. Here's how they did it 🧵

I recently watched an old BBC Arena documentary about Richard Attenborough and he spent years trying to get this film made. It's really quite striking, from where our shared culture is now, to spend time with someone so committed to trying to share stories of hope

This Houchen guy reckons he has a freedom to steal from you within reasonable limits. Watch out!

Once again we walk in the shadow of Sartre's observation on the antisemite, that they are always joking: nothing they say, they say, is to be taken seriously. Until it is too late.

They just mong them

One day everyone will always have been against these things. Be the person who always stood for what was right

The police killed someone during the Manchester attack

I interviewed Greta Thunberg a couple of years ago and have never stopped being impressed with her since. She's the real deal. Love and solidarity to her and everyone else kidnapped off the Sumud Flotilla. Free Palestine. ✊

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o... this headline really goes soft compared to the details in the article

““They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,” the Turkish activist ErsinÇelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.”+

can the mods stop being weird and aggro and just fix it so when you post a bsky link in another app the featured image isn’t a terrifyingly large version of your avatar

Presumably in addition to asking people not to protest Israel after the synagogue attack, Starmer will also be asking the police not to come to work either since they killed someone too

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

Peacehammer 40K: Paintinge litel miniatures of gardeneres, sculptors, academics. Trimminge hedges. Makinge friendes.

Any time a politician says we should leave the ECHR, the very next questions any interviewer should ask are 🚨Which human rights are you willing to lose personally 🚨Which methods of torture are you going to allow people to be sent to face 🚨Which family members would you be willing to lose #r4today

For those accused of having too many books Robinince.com #poetry #poem

Somewhere free, quiet, and right next to Liverpool Street? 👀 Whether you’ve got a deadline looming, are polishing off a chapter on your lunch break, or hunting for a calm spot to do some work, our new Reading Room is open to you. 👋 https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/whats-on/activity/reading-room/

"Pick an art or science: odds are, the greatest practitioner of it, the biggest talent, is instead doing something else because they need the money. So we mostly get the work of people who had enough of a cushion to do what they wanted."

A reminder: you cannot stop bigotry with more bigotry. Solidarity is key to ending all forms of institutionalised racism.

Absolutely amazing ❤️🇵🇸❤️ #Insorgiamo

Are you interested in the history of rivers? Do you wonder how historians and environmental scientists can work together? Join the EDHS seminar to hear from the ARTEMIS team about their amazing project exploring the histories and ecologies of the Scheldt. #envhist #histsci #skystorians #dh

The strike in Italy are massive. There's at least 100 different ones across the country under the banner of "Stop the Genocide, We Are all Global Sumud Flotilla" www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2025...

"The film ends with these lines spoken by the character of Gandhi, ‘When I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it: always.’"

Cant even have men Archbishops any more Because of Woking

Zack Polanski saying what every politician should be saying, "It's problematic to weaponise the synagogue attack to silence protest in this country against the genocide in Gaza" "These are separate things and we should condemn them both"

Devastating news from Manchester. Love, condolences and solidarity to everyone in the Jewish community

Elon Musk: “I love Javier Milei.” Kemi Badenoch: “Javier Milei is the template.” Donald Trump: “My favourite president.” Nigel Farage: "Amazing. Cutting and slashing … doing all the things he’s done … that’s leadership.” Meanwhile... in Argentina www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We're starting a new 'ArtsLab' (research network) in trans studies at Glasgow! It's very exciting and I hope that in time we can become a real centre for research in this field. Find out more - including details of our upcoming launch event - on our website: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/art...

A Labour Prime Minister. A LABOUR Prime Minister.

Join us today for Confronting Colonial Imaginaries – stories of a postcolonial road trip with Professor Uma Kothari Wed 1 Oct 2025 16:00–17:30 (stream opens 14:50) D1, Pathfoot Building, University of Stirling + online join online: placememory.net/events-2/#Um...

I'm hugely honoured and very excited to be giving this year's Historical Research #Lecture at @ihr.bsky.social, on 'Can popular #history be radical? Historical research and writing for the #public'. Tuesday 4 November, all welcome. More info in AltText. Book here: www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Some good news. London is meeting legal limits for toxic NO2 pollution for the first time – almost 200 years earlier than predicted – following the Mayor’s "world leading air pollution policies," City Hall announces. The Ultra Low Emissions Zone - and similar policies - really do work.

The truth is this is a moment where many different possibilities for the future are opening, and they are opening at an extremely high cost. Solidarity to everyone who is trying to build a path to a better world for us all right now, amidst every loss and grief we are carrying. Solidarity forever.

Read our response to the Government’s announcement that university maintenance grants will be reintroduced for certain courses, funded through a levy on international student fees https://bit.ly/4gPz7uO

What is at stake when we write Environmental History? And what is the right story? I used texts by Ted Steinberg, Stefania Barca & Erik Loomis' review of Sunil Amrith's "The Burning Earth" to discuss these questions with our M.Phil students last week. Can only recommend! #envhist

Looking forward to the policies to support migrants and reduce the absurd burdens they and their families live under

A colleague sent me her undergrads' and grads' reflections on a talk I gave last week, and I cannot overstate how useful it is to hear one's own arguments synthesized and wrestled with by students. I'm not even sure they know what an act of generosity these notes are, but holy moly!

I put this night on with @alexniven.bsky.social and @pdkmitchell.bsky.social. Come and stroke your chin and drink loads of pints.

Very pleased that my piece 'Urban history as urgent work, an argument for disciplinary promiscuity' has been published in @urbanhistory.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/S096... Many thanks to @mctom.bsky.social for organising the roundtable that got these thoughts going back in 2023! #UrbanHist #EnvHums

Wait, I've seen that look before

New! Cassetteboy vs Keir Starmer. This took absolutely ages, so if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/cassetteboy we'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

“AI” isn’t a tool or technology or even a cluster of technologies with a misleading name. It’s the infrastructure at the foundation of a form of capitalism dependent on data brokering. We should be teaching our students about this and not teaching them about “responsible” use.

'Arrival', the first episode of The Prisoner, debuted in the UK on this day in 1967 in selected ITV regions.

"God is Change, And in the end, God prevails. But meanwhile… Kindness eases Change. Love quiets fear. And a sweet and powerful Positive obsession Blunts pain, Diverts rage, And engages each of us In the greatest, The most intense Of our chosen struggles" — Octavia E. Butler, 'Parable of the Sower'

Browser extensions such as Unpaywall can automatically look for Open Access versions of any scholarly publication, so mostly you don't need to go hunting through institutional depositories

Few journalists that I have met know about the green open access system in the uk (where authors upload a pre-proof version of research to an institutional depository). This makes almost ALL new UK research open access now, but just really hard to track down.

Tomorrow I'll be welcoming students to my Planetary Infrastructures seminar @thebartlettucl.bsky.social Over the coming months we'll be reading approaches to infrastructure from different disciplines, thinking through the place of infrastructure within architectural history and theory. Exciting :)

I actually misremembered this - it’s 100 papers *a month*. Essentially total access unless you’re @sharonk.bsky.social

This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.