(on slow slow summer writing) And when the sun started to burn the earth, promising a long and unconquerable sultriness, everything alive, everything which had moved and made noises in the night, sank into somnolence. Chekhov, 'Fortune'

Strong causal evidence that not cooperating with the radical right strengthens the mainstream right.

Nifty shift.

The dean of Yale Law School and some members of its faculty are trying to stop a settlement between the university and the Trump administration, warning that an agreement could jeopardize Yale’s independence, according to two people familiar with the deliberations.

main parties say they will boycott Farage’s stunt by-election, looks like the perennial novelty candidate & self-styled space alien may now get his chance… Academics studying politics & anti-politics have long realised that joke candidates no joke at all www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Breaking: Ministers confirm cut to Strategic Priorities Grant for universities. Teaching funding reduction will be sharply felt by some institutions, says Office for Students. Free to read. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Back in Paris for today's massively consequential court decision that will determine whether the RN leader M. Le Pen can stand in next year's French presidential election. It is no exaggeration to say that today's court decision will effectively launch the French presidential election campaign 1/

UEFA: „When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined.“ Substitute „game“ for „democracy“ & „competition“ for „rules-based order“ and you’ve got the US administration in a nutshell.

Brilliant archive and project. Close to our heart with @uclei.bsky.social‘s #BlackEurope initiative. @artshumsucl.bsky.social

AI firms are now destroying our cultural heritage: they are buying massive amounts of used books, scanning them in likely violation of copyright laws, training their models and destroying the books. www.tagesschau.de/kultur/ki-fi...

British Academy President's statement on the UK's higher education crisis, July 2026.

Brilliant from @alanbeattie.bsky.social on the floating signifier of ‘The North’. Brought to mind the student applicant, from the South, to York who said they wanted to study in a northern city.

So typical of you, Chronos, personification of time, to wave with your winged hourglass and reminding everyone to hurry up. We know, we're late. Thank you.

📢NEW RESOURCE: A new web resource and accompanying report to explore the vulnerabilities to political interference of 33 key UK scientific public bodies & 11 scientific advisory committees! unchecked.uk/public_body_... 1/7

Written a quick substack summarising the paper as well (although there's only so much you can do in 800 words compared to the length of the full paper!) open.substack.com/pub/christin...

A grim day in a grim week in a grim month for UK higher education, with Dundee, Exeter and Hertfordshire all making major announcements of planned redundancies. Shrinkage of the research & teaching base by the invisible hand's visible fist is not an 'us' or 'them', SHAPE or STEM phenomenon. 1/2

REFERENDUM+10: The Brexit referendum was a one-time event. It's tempting to think that a return referendum will easily reverse the damage it caused. But, as per @albertpweale.bsky.social of @uclspp.bsky.social, nothing could be further from the truth. ucleuropeblog.com/2026/06/23/r...

REFERENDUM+10: Young people voted overwhelming to remain in the EU - yet are most hit by disadvantages linked to leaving, particularly in terms of employment and education, argues Joanna Helme @ucleisps.bsky.social & @laws.ucl.ac.uk. ucleuropeblog.com/2026/06/23/r...

REFERENDUM+10: Ten years after the referendum, one lesson stands out: economic arguments alone rarely win high-stakes political contests. Nor do facts speak for themselves. Read Özlem Atikcan @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social on persuasion & the politics of meaning. ucleuropeblog.com/2026/06/23/r...

REFERENDUM+10: Unlike earlier referendums, the Brexit vote was not ‘self-executing.’, argues Leah Trueblood (Surrey). Its legal significance - and the legal relationship with the EU - were heavily contested. Arguably, these disagreements remain relevant today. ucleuropeblog.com/2026/06/23/r...

REFERENDUM+10: The run-up to the Brexit referendum displayed some similarities to oratory in ancient Rome. Gesine Manuwald @artshumsucl.bsky.social asks if, ten years later, a comparison with political rhetoric in the Roman Republic is still instructive. ucleuropeblog.com/2026/06/23/r...

Some rather pessimistic thoughts alas about the UK rejoining the EU @uclei.bsky.social But even the best cause is not well served by wishful thinking: ucleuropeblog.com/2026/06/23/r...

REFERENDUM+10: Ten years ago today, the UK voted to leave the European Union. On the anniversary of the most consequential vote in modern British history, academics from UCL and elsewhere look back: at the referendum itself and its legacies. Read them on ucleuropeblog.com @uclnews.bsky.social

Loving the materiality of this paper, used in a book from 1784. Due to shortage of white rags, the raw material for paper, this paper maker added straw and some blue rags. EHC A 29985, vol. 1: C.F. Flögel, Geschichte der komischen Litteratur. Legnica (Liegnitz), Siegert, 1784-1787 (4 v.)

This will be great fun, drawing on interviews stretching from 1952 to 2024. What was it like to be blind, gay or a pioneering woman in Parliament? What really happens in the bars & smoking rooms? How does the building shape our politics, & how has "modernisation" changed Parliament? All welcome!

Out today! A new report of the Society from Catharine Barnard and Joel Reland charing the development of UK regulation post-Brexit. You can read it on our website at: consoc.org.uk/publications...

Die deu Berichterstattung über Belfast war größtenteils von Unwissen über die dortige Situation geprägt - oder von bewusst darüber gelegten Narrativen im Gefolge von Musk. Im Tsp analysiert @fotoole die eigentlichen Hintergründe. Hervorragendes Interview mit der klugen @tessaszy.bsky.social 👇

Since launching our digital archive last year we have been constantly updating the site to make as many of our collections as possible available to researchers around the world There are now over 260,000 pages of evidence relating to the Holocaust and the Nazi era available online

Very interesting new Brexit research here from @johnspringford.bsky.social and @antonspisak.bsky.social which a) shows bigger effects on services exports than previously thought and b) disaggregates the impact of leaving single market + customs union: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Delighted to find this beast in the post

Just a superb owl couple, dressed and skating on a frozen river in seventeenth century Europe, with him holding a mouse in its beak, and her looking a bit grumpy because of the state of the world. This is what I call a #timelinecleanse. Not one #superbOwl but two #superbOWLS on ice. #skystorians 🦉

New research suggests that ADHD may still be under-recognised and underdiagnosed in England. Co-authored by Dr Gavin Stewart @gavrobstew.bsky.social, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, the study draws on data from millions of patient records.🧵

'Universities need to do a better job of explaining their contribution to society beyond jobs and skills, according to the former lord mayor of London, Michael Mainelli.' Wonder why universities have been banging on about jobs and skills. Silly them. It's not as though they've been encouraged. 1/3

The World Tonight & Crossing Continents were the last BBC programmes that dealt in depth with global affairs. Their demise says everything you need to know about priorities in British public life, which is mired more than at any time in monolingual mediocrity and insularity. You reap what you sow.

When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.

Carlo Ginzburg est mort, annonce la presse italienne. Immense historien, il a su construire une oeuvre originale entre micro-histoire et anthropologie historique qui a considérablement renouvelé la discipline. www.repubblica.it/cultura/2026...

Always a bit amused when I see a "this is the canary in the coal mine" take about universities or the humanities. My dude, we're knee deep in canary carcasses. Glad've cottoned on, but the eery silence of ceased chirping has long since engulfed us.

Verde que te quiero verde (Green how I want you green) -Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) Always read Lorca, especially on his birthday #everynightapoem

We are Christopher Isherwood, watching the paramilitaries in the Berlin street below going from house to house carrying out a pogrom before our eyes.

The final crowning event of Nino Haratischwili's month-long residence with us, under the @europeanlitlondon.bsky.social banner. Our warmest thanks to the German ambassador for hosting her that evening.

Super interesting book project that rescues an old photographic technique, the Multigraph, from oblivion, reconstructing its surprising connection with the visual history of the 19th-21st c. #photography #portrait #history www.verkami.com/projects/360...

“I write with dismay, grief and sorrow for the permanent closure of MIT Libraries Barker, Dewey and Rotch, and termination of library staff in those libraries. For MIT to be closing three of its four major libraries..." fnl.mit.edu/may-june-202...

Yesterday two European institutions published this extremely good paper on future UK-EU ties. It deserves proper attention coming from there so to speak and being based on serious engagement with experts on both sides. Some key points follow... www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/en/publicati...

Es ist einfach nicht so einfach.

tuesday

Das Begleitprogramm zur Ausstellung startet am Di., 12. Mai, mit einer spannenden Podiumsdiskussion: Der Holocaust. Was wussten die Deutschen – und wie verhielten sie sich? Mit Prof. Dr. Bernward Dörner, Prof. Dr. Mary Fulbrook & Prof. Dr. Peter Longerich Infos: www.topographie.de/veranstaltun...

WEWEWEDENME - what? Fancy a story of a wonderfish with 2 human legs, a sword, 2 pikes, and a godly warning on the fish skin? Welcome to #earlymodern Europe's world of publishing: this fish story hit the news in 1616 with an unusual warning code: WEWEWEDENME. Let's start a thread.

@chrischirp.bsky.social provides an overview of Safeguarding Scholarship in Emerging Autocracies, an Annual Convention workshop with @lewan.bsky.social @vkempe.bsky.social Learn more about this #APS26BCN event happening NEXT month: www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...

Update to this story - the shadow science secretary Julia Lopez has doubled down on the policy Early sign of political consensus around R&D funding cracking?