On 9 November 1938 the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath was assassinated by Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old German-born Polish Jew living in Paris. The Nazis used this as an excuse for launching Kristallnacht, an assault on Jews in Germany.

Pause to consider what this means: The Trump administration will audit admissions data by race, color, and test score. RACE AND COLOR. COLOR. That’s exactly what Columbia agreed to do. When’s the last time that someone asked you what color you are? Are you sure the Trump admin agrees with you?

In Trump’s America I assume Reagan’s last speech as President would be banned for its ‘woke’ sentiment youtu.be/2R8QxCD6ir8?...

Fascinating conversation with Kristina Kallas on Education in Estonia on Teachers Talk Radio. Key to the system's success: set high standards for entry to teacher education, but then trust teachers with high levels of autonomy. Listen at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=McVQ...

Brooke Nichols, a Boston University health economist, is calculating the consequences of Trump’s cuts to humanitarian aid across the world. Currently the level of additional deaths is 340,000 and rising.

'I embrace you with all my heart.' When Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize he wrote a letter to his first teacher. Worth remembering on #thankateacher day.

Inflammatory language by Trump and his acolytes as he directly challenges the elected leader of California. Is this the start of an assault on Democrat-controlled States? www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/u... via NYTimes

NASA engineer Ed Smylie died last month. He was most famous for using bits and pieces of materials, all held together by duct tape, to save the lives of the Apollo 13 crew. He firmly believed this stick-fast wonder could fix anything (from The Economist) economist.com/obituary/202...

Three FT articles today - 1) international students speak anonymously out of fear of Trump’s ban, (2) questioning the defunding of public radio and (3) criticism of crypto-currency. Trump’s response: ‘Apparently the Financial Times has dumb writers listening to even dumber sources.’

Children in #Gaza are enduring unimaginable suffering. According to @unicef.org, over 950 have reportedly been killed in just two months. They are starving, displaced, and exposed to indiscriminate attacks. This must stop. Children must be protected.

Wonderful article suggesting we set aside Kurt Vonnegut’s advice and celebrate the semicolon. ‘A comma brings a pause; a semicolon brings the drama.’ www.ft.com/content/80c3...

On May 22, 1998, the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement was endorsed by referendums in both parts of Ireland

‘Democracies don’t turn into autocracies overnight. There has to be a critical mass of true believers [and] of appeasers.’ @fotoole examines how some US universities are bending to Trump and thereby threatening democracy. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

A pretty significant concession from the EU that likely helped the breakthrough. The UK has granted the EU full access to British waters until 30 June 2038 - a 12-year extension. But UK gets the SPS deal indefinitely, so not tied to fishing.

Good news ftom Romania! www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/w...

Great to see the Fighting Words supplement in today’s Irish News, showcasing the power and joy of creative writing by young people across the island of Ireland.

Interesting article claiming to provide insight on the voting patterns in the Papal Conclave, with three main candidates emerging early on. One thing it doesn’t explain is why Cardinal Tagle’s candidacy appears not to have taken off. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/w... via @NYTimes

The state of things in the USA. Hard to believe it has come to this so quickly. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/o...

📍To attract top researchers to the EU, the European Commission launched a €500 million package. We’re also preparing the first-ever EU Innovation Act and a Startup & Scaleup Strategy to fast-track ideas from lab to market. #ChooseEurope for the future of science! (3/3)

“We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza. “If we do nothing about it, we will be complicit in what is happening before our eyes.” — Michael Ryan, WHO

First report from a Salzburg Global project looking at polarisation and violent threats against democracy. www.salzburgglobal.org/fileadmin/us...

Trump Ends $1 Billion in Mental Health Grants for Schools. The funds were authorized by Congress in the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which passed after 19 students and two teachers lost their lives in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. www.edweek.org/policy-polit...

Love when @nicolemockler.bsky.social drops truth bombs. “Respect matters. Valuing what teachers actually know and do, and recognising that it’s complex…would be a pathway to reinstating trust in the teaching profession.” blog.aare.edu.au/just-because...

Today’s Irish Times

BBC is reporting that Pope Francis has died

The EU makes clear it won’t compromise food standards in any trade deal with the USA. Will the UK also hold to that line?

If you pay attention: everything they say they don’t like for Black people: affirmative action, diversity hires, quotas, identity politics, ideological litmus tests, they are trying to mandate and enforce for white people.

It was a great honour to be asked to write the General Rapporteur’s Report for the Council of Europe Third Forum on History Education and very pleased to see the report now published. Available here: rm.coe.int/prems-015725...

Now watching: City of Fear, a 1958 film combining Noir with nuclear paranoia. A violent criminal escapes from San Quentin with a container of heroin, but in fact it’s radioactive material that’s killing him and threatens the city. Great use of LA locations as the sense of doom deepens!

It’s like watching a movie where the principals think they’re in The Godfather, when actually they’re in Goodfellas. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/b... via NYTimes

New survey on UK young people suggests most are optimistic about the future; they think democracy in the UK is in trouble and worry about financial anxiety; views among young people vary more than inter-generational differences. @politicsinaction.bsky.social www.johnsmithcentre.com/wp-content/u...

Anyone trading with insider knowledge of the new pause will have made a fortune - hope that will be checked.

Alain Juppé, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Roland Dumas are senior political figures in France who were prosecuted and convicted, just like Marine Le Pen. In democratic societies no-one is above the law. www.ft.com/content/85c8... via @ft

Why have I never seen this film or read the book before? The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn has Maggie Smith’s stellar performance portraying the crushing hypocrisy of 1950s Ireland as the overwhelming influence of religion drained every sense of ambition, hope or humanity.

SCOTUS allows an order from Trump to cancel $65mn in grants to teachers for work focused on promoting a positive approach to diversity, equality and inclusion. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/u... via @NYTimes

White House fires National Security Agency chief - Trump firing senior staff, apparently because of their ‘disloyalty’ to him.I would have thought their primary loyalty was to the US Constitution, not Trump.

Dr James Mannion and The Real David Cameron look at the education systems across the UK and ask: what can we learn from one another? Lena Carter, Lucy Kirkham, Tony Gallagher and Graham Donaldson joined the conversation. @QUBSSESW www.rethinking-ed.org/the-4-nation...

Universities need a platform to engage with policy makers over the conditions needed to put R&I, education and skills at the heart of the European Commission’s #CompetitivenessCompass. 🔗 bit.ly/4jm5IZj ✍️ @thomasjorgensen.eupolicy.social.ap.brid.gy in Research Europe #EUAExpertVoices

God “lawfare” is a chilling little term isn’t it. From people who have no ethical qualms whatsoever about actually launching attacks, but want to paint legal scrutiny as violence.

Odd that she is saying this after Musk was literally handing out $$$s to voters.

Not being allowed to hand water to people in line to vote no matter who they are voting for, while being allowed to hand people million dollar checks to get their vote, is the most American thing ever.

30 March 1931 | A Polish Jewish girl, Machla Hipszer, was born in Sosnowiec. In August 1943 she was deported to #Auschwitz from the Będzin ghetto and murdered in a gas chamber.

It’s more than a decade since I last watched Steve McQueen’s ‘12 Years A Slave’. It remains a visceral and deeply emotional portrayal of slavery, the American Holocaust. Perhaps moreso now as the authoritarian regime in the USA is actively whitewashing history.

Very pleased to see this new book by my good friend, Sjur Bergan, on the role of higher education in preparing citizens to become active citizens in democratic societies. Also pleased that Sjur chose to place QUB on the front cover. tupress.temple.edu/books/europe...

Inspiring visit to CoCo in South Los Angeles whose mission is to to transform the conditions that foster addiction, crime, violence and poverty by building a community institution that involves thousands in creating, influencing and changing public policy. cocosouthla.org

Government’s own impact assessment of its £5 billion cuts to benefits: an extra quarter of a million people including 50,000 children will be in relative poverty by 2029/30

‘There is wisdom in the crowd. But there is an awful lot of noise, too.’ The horrors of shared docs (from TheEconomist) economist.com/business/202...