You don’t raze entire towns and cities street by street with controlled demolitions and bulldozers for any military objective. You do it because the aim is to wipe those places out of existence forever, and it’s not like they’ve been hiding this.

This from @nesrinemalik.bsky.social is a clear and horrifying explanation of the atrocities underway in El Fasher. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

#OtD 1 Nov 1963 Black tenants began a rent strike in Harlem, NYC. By January, about 2000 tenants were withholding rent. The strike caused the city to create a rat eradication program, legalize rent strikes, and pass laws to improve housing conditions stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7712...

Youngest child was at a holiday club this morning so I was able to sit in a coffee shop to do some reading and note taking for my dissertation. Currently looking at the stories we tell and how they impact us…

"We would all be better off if child poverty was reduced. And the most efficient, the quickest, the easiest, and the most politically, morally and socially justified way of doing that would be to lift the cap. We would all be better off as a consequence of that." www.lbc.co.uk/article/grou...

I’m really starting to suspect that most of the tech bros haven’t actually read Tolkien, as they certainly don’t understand it. The gentle hobbits save the “hard men” of Gondor, largely through compassion and selflessness. Not the other way around. The Christian parable is barely hidden!

Due to a kind anonymous donor, all donations made to Christian Climate Action up to Wednesday 5th November will be matched, up to a maximum of £10,000. Donations can be made via our website. christianclimateaction.org/2025/10/19/d...

Evidence is now coming to light of UK complicity in a *third* consecutive world leading humanitarian catastrophe. Few countries have a record of complicity in mass murder quite like Britain's. It goes beyond this or that government. It's a structural phenomenon. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Enjoying an autumn ramble at Stourhead this afternoon.

Ed Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America

The problem is not (as MAGA claims) that America isn’t “Christian” enough. It’s that mainstream evangelical Christianity in America has served white supremacy too long. They’ve turned Christianity into justification for terror. Yes, this has happened before. No, I don’t think Jesus would approve.

I've signed this open letter. #CofEpeeps, lay or ordained, if you want the church to become more fully affirming of LGBTQ+ folks, please read this letter from Inclusive Church and consider signing it. www.inclusive-church.org/llf-open-let...

Why is a Labour Home Secretary perpetuating this myth in The Sun? Asylum applications in the UK are significantly below the average for all European countries. The only person helped by spreading this falsehood is Nigel Farage

BREAKING: The ICJ says Israel, 'as an occupying power' must facilitate UN aid efforts in Gaza, including UNRWA’s, and must ensure “basic needs” of Palestinians in Gaza. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/3htm6o

The death has been announced of influential theologian Phyllis Trible: myunion.utsnyc.edu/emailviewonw... A towering talent and dedicated feminist biblical studies scholar. Our condolences to all who knew her.

Once again, one reason Trump says & does whatever he wants is bc every societal institution, including the media, has totally normalized & internalized the idea that the laws, the Constitution, & the international treaties we have signed & ratified simply don’t apply to this one guy. It’s maddening.

Just a ridiculous joke of a country proclaiming it's "going for growth" and spending every waking moment instead focussed on vindictive cruelty to migrants. What a waste of everyone's time.

I'm actually quite angry now. In the last year, we have moved from far right riots drawing broad condemnation from across the spectrum to mass deportations being not just a policy platform, but one the government do not feel able to condemn. This is both an absurd radicalisation, and pure cowardice.

Please donate You can help us to call for action on climate breakdown. We’re very excited to say that, due to a kind anonymous donor offering us match funding, if you donate by 5th November your donation will be doubled. To find out more and donate: christianclimateaction.org/2025/10/19/d...

One of the less understood beauties of a transition to a renewable economy is: you cannot invade a country and steal its sunshine and its wind, and you will not need to. The uneven distribution of fossil fuel, esp. oil, has corroded geopolitics for more than a century....

Extract from A Heavy Yoke by Selina Stone - think this sums things up pretty well…

Hat's off to The National for showing the rest of us what public service journalism is meant to be: Keeping notes, taking names, and holding those in power accountable for their words and deeds.

"No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ."

Planet’s first catastrophic climate tipping point reached, report says, with coral reefs facing ‘widespread dieback’ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

It’s Baby Loss Awareness Week. After losing multiple pregnancies in my 20s, I eventually wrote The Dark Womb about theology and pregnancy loss. Part of that was a selection of prayers & liturgies - available here @scmpress.bsky.social #babyloss #babylossawarenessweek #theology #prayers

Just as we are beginning to understand the biochemical basis of this horrendous condition, the government appoints the man perhaps most responsible for the mischaracterisation of ME/CFS – Simon Wesseley - to its *overdiagnosis* commission. www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/controv...

ME/CFS is a devastating condition that has long been denied, dismissed, psychologised and underdiagnosed. Research is at last starting to catch up with it, with glimmers of hope for those who have been left untreated for so long. There's a huge BUT coming ...🧵 www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth

More autumn rambles…

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day? Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

Firms running hotels make vast profits, while often providing appalling conditions. People seeking asylum don't choose to get stuck in hotels. Firms choose to make money off their lives, and governments choose to pay them rather than implement better alternatives. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Over the weekend, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller repeatedly attacked judges, calling them part of an "organized terrorist attack" on the US government.... On Saturday, the home of a judge who ruled against Trump, went up in flames time.com/7323442/sout...

Those trying to get aid into Gaza were beaten and left without enough food and water. Meanwhile our government continues trying to find ways of preventing people protesting… www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Wish I could say I was shocked, but here's the Labour government constraining the right to peaceful protest again... 'You can protest but only according to our rules. The rules are: you're not allowed to use any of the tactics that make protest effective.'

Until someone, and Greens are probably doing the best at attempting this right now, breaks the cycle and says "hang on, maybe we could implement something positive and make the case for it instead" we are going to end up with policies based purely on what "flagpatriot1234" likes on social media.

British politics is basically a doom spiral of increasingly unhinged hostile policies. Reform says something unhinged ⬇️ Labour counters with their own unhinged policy ⬇️ Tories shout from back they'll be even more unhinged ⬇️ Reform announces different unhinged proposal in response ⬇️ And repeat...🔁

People from all walks of life — including many British Jews — are protesting against your government’s complicity in genocide and standing in solidarity with Palestine. Conflating Israel’s genocide in Gaza with British Jews is deeply inappropriate and dangerous. Shame on you.

Trans pupils in Scotland are limiting food and drink intake to avoid using school toilets, fearing they might be ‘outed’ www.scenemag.co.uk/trans-pupils...

My heartbreak and horror at the killing and starvation of Gazans does not negate my total support and solidarity with my fellow jewish citizens across the UK against terror. The conflation on display by some politicians and media outlets over the last 24 hours is sickening.

Israel has just arrested Greta Thunberg and many others. Statement from the Global Sumud Flotilla: “People of conscience have been abducted. The flotilla broke no laws. What is illegal is Israel’s genocide, Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza, and Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon.” 1/3

Autumn rambles…

Let that sink in "Despite its extreme population density, Gaza was mostly self-sufficient in vegetables and poultry, and met much of the population’s demand for olives, fruit and milk. But last month the UN reported that just 1.5% of its agricultural land now remains both accessible and undamaged."

Dear God, would be nice if Radio 4 didn't repeat obviously nonsensical arguments. Being forced into being undocumented and exploited by employers is not a "pull factor". Also the conflation between "asylum" and "illegal" is getting damn tedious.

Wonder if Starmer will find room in his speech to acknowledge the objective fact a century of escalating climate impacts means global migration will massively increase. We either find a way to effectively and humanely manage that fact, rather than deny it, or things will get very dark very quickly.

How do you rebut something this incoherent?

So very, very tired.

And to those who question the need for human rights laws or international courts, this is it. Because even functioning democracies can end up with authoritarian, oppressive regimes. And it is vulnerable people who suffer when there is no way to curtail government powers.

You know why ethnic minorities in the UK always feel second-class as if they're never safe in this country and could be asked to leave at any time? This is why: