I expect Chinese academia may benefit from this...

Here's an anonymous painting of the 1888 Rio Tinto massacre, in which the Spanish army shot or bayoneted over 200 Spanish mine workers to protect the interests of the British Rio Tinto Corporation. The workers were protesting peacefully for protection of the local environment...

There are huge energy demands when we move from using humans to answer questions and replace them with chat bots that can't deal with complexity and give wrong answers with every bit as much confidence as right ones. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Pursuing universal energy access in Africa is predicated on the deployment of off-grid renewable energy systems... Read our latest feature on decentralized, off-grid renewable energy systems in Africa by @joshkirshner.bsky.social and Dr. Harshit Vallecha. theenergypioneer.com/addressing-o...

Join us on 16 June where we explore findings from two York-led research projects funded by the British Academy that examine social and normative processes shaping the use of evidence in environmental policymaking in the Global South. Find out more and book your place here tinyurl.com/563ex6pr

fly on, o great one. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/m...

the FT has two pieces on the slow-motion collapse of UK higher ed. 4/5ths of unis are doing voluntary layoffs; 38% are doing compulsory. Meanwhile Britain and its flatlined productivity growth sleepwalks through its unprecedented loss of advanced capabilities www.ft.com/content/8097...

Victoria Stead reviews Tuomas Tammisto's 'Hard Work' (2024) in 'Oceania'. Check out the #bookreview at: doi.org/10.1002/ocea... If you're interested in the book itself, it's freely available via: doi.org/10.33134/HUP... @tutam.bsky.social #anthropology #work #PapuaNewGuinea #openaccess

Student solidarity 🩷 Yesterday we were joined on the picket line by third year geographers, all of whom know exactly what is at stake with the current plans to dismantle the university, all of whom completely understand and support our marking and assessment boycott www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Excited to participate in this GlobalCORRIDOR event organised by Catherine Ngahu in Nairobi. Join us in person/online for some great talks on global infrastructure projects in East Africa on Tues 26th May biea.ac.uk/events/globa...

Ten extraordinary women making cities work better for everyone

Join us on 16 June where we explore findings from two York-led research projects funded by the British Academy that examine social and normative processes shaping the use of evidence in environmental policymaking in the Global South. Find out more and book your place here tinyurl.com/563ex6pr

Barnacles have won the Iran war www.ft.com/content/28c8...

And a happy writing day to you too 😊

URGENT - UCU St Andrews Member - Antonis Vradis is on the Qannir La Cirena boat in the Global Summid Flotilla which has been intercepted by Israel Contact your MP and MSP Contact the Principal Please share

Please help spread the news far and wide! We have a new, full-time, permanent Lecturer in Global History of Science job @stsucl.bsky.social Don't be fooled by the application of deadline of only 9 June 2026. This is an open search #histsci #skystorians www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

This is what powers MAGA Exurban fear. Created and sustained by car culture dependency. www.axios.com/2026/05/19/e...

Trump's presidency before the Iran war was off the rails awful and it's only gotten worse. Every successive day is a new outrage in venality, lies, narcissism, cruelty, stupidity, crassness, callousness, greed, overreach. All matched by the supine obsequiousness of his own party leading us to ruin.

So who is paying, exactly, for Rwanda's generous gesture of "African solidarity"? This raises as many questions as it answers. www.reuters.com/world/africa...

www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/r... (Gift link)

The Urban Studies Journal has issued a call for papers for a special issue on “Operationalizing Southern Urbanism(s) in Uncertain Times,” inviting contributions that show what it means to operationalize southern urbanism 2.0 today. Abstracts are due Aug. 1. #urbanism #urbanplanning

One of my favourite songs - a very compelling version from @ronsexsmith.bsky.social

This looks useful, if you interested in low-carbon buildings in in Britain: New UK National Buildings Database www.buildingsandcities.org/insights/new...

A new ‘letters’ paper on accessing equipment for off-grid energy. Drawing on community-led, decentralised energy initiatives in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Mozambique, we trace how the development of off-grid energy systems is constrained by supply chain fragilities. iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

🗳️ After a rapidly evolving week in UK politics, tomorrow we unpack what the local election results mean for our climate. 🎤 Join @matpaterson.bsky.social, @robfordmancs.bsky.social, @bankfieldbecky.bsky.social, @luciemidd.bsky.social @beccam-c.bsky.social & @friends-earth.bsky.social's Abdi Suleiman

Check out IGDCs evolving webpage with resources on decolonising research. www.york.ac.uk/igdc/decolon...

The world now uses at least 40 million hectares of cropland, an area the size of Paraguay, to produce biofuels that account for only 4% of global transport energy In the US, we use 30-40% of our corn supply and 40-50% of our soybean oil supply to produce…about 6% of our transport fuel

Manchester's map looks a bit like Berlin's and Vienna's - green core with social democratic red ring around it, radical right in the poor suburbs, traditional right in the rich ones..

Republicans are a neo-Confederate policy. After the party attempted a coup, that should have sealed their fate as white supremacist traitors, and it is a stain on this country that it didn’t. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/u...

Internal vacancy: We are appointing a new Director for YESI at the University of York. Help us deliver world-class collaborative research on environmental sustainability. Apply by 11 May 2026: buff.ly/p3UL7dN #SustainabilityResearch #UoYJobs #YESI

As debates on industrial policy revive, Nyerere’s legacy offers a critical archive of both the promise and limits of socialist development. africasacountry.com/2026/05/the-...

how it started — how it’s going

Utopias do not emerge in a vacuum, but through transnational exchange. Join us next Wednesday, May 6, at the IHR African History Seminar with Stephanie Wanga (LSE) to learn what this looked like in socialist Zanzibar and East Germany during the 1960s! Register here www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

We are seeking a new YESI Director to lead our research community and drive activity across our key themes: Food, Water + Waste; Resilient Socio-ecological Systems; + Environment, Climate + Health. 🌍 This is a part-time appointment starting in September 2026. Apply by 11 May: buff.ly/p3UL7dN

New paper with in @roapejournal.bsky.social! What kind of labour restructuring is emerging with the recent entry of Indian firms and investors in the large-scale coal operations in Mozambique's Tete province? An ethnographic study of labour dynamics, subcontracting and strike action in Tete.

A new blog post on 'evidence cultures,' stemming from a project I'm on in Krabi, Thailand with colleagues at York and Mahidol unis blogs.york.ac.uk/igdc/2026/04...

Alas, Nigel Dunnett is gone, and too young. A towering figure in landscape and horticulture. thedirt.news/landscape-de...

every few months, americans are asked to resume their banquet and pretend a shooting didn't just happen

On the latest AIAC podcast, the gang from the Nigerian Scam explores how Afrobeats got globalized, who captured the value, and why the party may be ending. africasacountry.com/2026/04/the-...

Map of North America, Greg Curnoe, 1972

This is The Washington Post using its opinion section to manufacture consent for U.S. intervention in Cuba. When every “opinion” piece points in the same direction, it stops being analysis and starts functioning as propaganda.

"Upon re-entering Senegal at Digante, the road did not improve. It remained a rough, neglected track, a physical testament to decades of political marginalization... this southern part of Senegal is Casamance, a region separated from Dakar geographically www.theideasletter.org/essay/in-wes...

Increasing localisde production in Egypt within Chinese-owned wind energy projects... www.semafor.com/article/04/1...