Some reflections on the first two years as Art Director of Cultural Studies, with more to come.

3,000 people have read our @environmentalpol.bsky.social article in its 1st month online The global criminalisation and repression of climate and environmental protest - a repertoire of repression With @crossdale.bsky.social, C Pantazis, @roxana-pessoa.bsky.social & T Franco Brotto

I am usually a very behind the scenes person but I stepped outside of my comfort zone because I hope reading this will inspire other people just to step up and do the thing. You never know what your impact can be.

I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.

Israel’s destruction of the Hebron seed bank echoes centuries of settler-colonial tactics worldwide: erasing Indigenous food systems to dominate land, knowledge, and collective memory.

For all of the educators trying to deal with AI, I did a deep dive in early June and these are the four articles I decided to assign to my students. 1. This is the longest of the bunch, but so wonderfully comprehensive. www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1...

This should get WIDE circulation: MIT stating that it “has no confidence in the provenance, reliability or validity of the data and has no confidence in the veracity of the research contained in the paper.” gizmodo.com/mit-backs-aw...

teachers! excited to share a new website at this late date of Aug 15 to try to help us collectively prepare for back to school in the interpretative humanities classroom assaulted by the AI grift, so we don't have to go it alone. take a look, share, + most importantly: CONTRIBUTE against-a-i.com

My department is hiring! We seek to hire an Assistant Professor in Global Black Geographies whose work engages "with the spatial dimensions of life in African and/or Black diasporic communities in the Global South". Job ad with more details: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05026

BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.

They ripped him apart from his pregnant wife in her last trimester. They stole from him the birth of his baby boy Dean, his graduation ceremony, his first Father's Day. They detained him illegally for 104 days. But today, Mahmoud Khalil is FINALLY FREE. 🤍✊🏼

SCOOP — ICE employees received an email yesterday telling them the agency's warrantless arrest policy had been rescinded. It's likely part of the Trump administration's efforts to further loosen enforcement restrictions to meet the new quota of 3,000 immigration arrests per day. My report:

Props to @jasonaw.bsky.social and Ali Winston for connecting the dots between a cheesy ass crypto fascist hell resort in Wyoming and the network state movement in the Bay, including Oakland of all fucking places

So many Silicon places. Tomorrow. @dukepress.bsky.social www.euroethno.hu-berlin.de/de/das-insti...

The comment period for this ends in 3 DAYS. Please leave a comment telling them EVERYONE should be able to get covid boosters. www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...

This is happening right now. www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

"The Agriculture Department will not require poultry companies to limit salmonella bacteria in their products, halting a Biden Administration effort to prevent food poisoning from contaminated meat." www.seattletimes.com/business/usd...

Rafah no longer exists. Israel has flattened an entire city to build a buffer zone and carve Gaza into military corridors. This about permanent occupation and ethnic cleansing. mondoweiss.net/2025/04/rafa...

!! “Environmental reviews that typically take a year to complete would be finished in 14 days, administration officials said. More complicated environmental impact statements that usually take two years would be completed in 28 days, they said.”

SCOOP: Barnard students are being interrogated about a bomb threat last month on the day students held a pro-Palestine sit-in at the library. But the school never revealed to the public -- or the students -- that the threat was against student protesters. theintercept.com/2025/04/24/b...

This article is from a few days ago, but as we anticipate EOs on Earth Day, some pre-reading: insideclimatenews.org/news/1804202...

My sincere condolences to the faithful, and to the Palestinians who lost in him a rare world leader ally.

NEW: When a firefighter dies, a small team of federal health workers helps pinpoint what went wrong and identify how to avoid similar accidents in the future. Trump laid off nearly all of them.

Almost all NOAA Research websites that rely on cloud services - including Amazon, Google and WordPress - are poised to disappear at midnight ET Saturday after a contract was targeted for "early termination." Labs may also feel the effects. Story for @bloomberg.com (free link):

We've updated Drilled's guide to global climate disinformation: drilled.media/news/disinfo... Let me know what we're missing!

Next week, some environmental orgs will likely be charged w/ bogus accusations by POTUS. Here’s the deal: we stand together. An attack on one is an attack on all. Those not named aren’t off the hook; they have to lean in to support those falsely accused. #unity www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Bringing back McCarthyism.

The Trump admin is terminating a settlement aimed at improving wastewater treatment services for Black Alabama communities harmed by raw sewage, calling the agreement an “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy”

I will not stop pointing out that the Trump admin is following the lead of organized right-wing forces; universities pretending that there are genuine/popular/widespread concerns underpinning the attacks on our work completely ignore the way they have been manufactured. We must fight back.

Cannot recommend this article enough for those wishing to make sense of the confluence of forces and coalitional contradictions shaping many aspects of our conjuncture. Thank you as always @naomiaklein.bsky.social and @astra.bsky.social.

BREAKING: An immigration court determined our client Mahmoud Khalil to be removable from the U.S. based solely on his political speech. The fight isn't over — we'll keep fighting for Mahmoud's freedom and all of our First Amendment rights in federal court.

ICYMI, staff leading it were fired. #NCA6 www.science.org/content/arti...

Today's US EO orders the Attorney General to identify + take expeditious action to stop enforcement of "all State & local laws... purporting to address “climate change” or involving “environmental, social, and governance” initiatives, “environmental justice,” carbon or “greenhouse gas” emissions."

We are risking plunging the United States into a dark age of entomology next week. USDA programs are facing massive lay-offs next week and the public should be aware of the impact. If you care about food systems, forests, invasive species, this thread is for you. Read Below: 🧪 #entomology #science

Lots of people can’t protest and I think @prisonculture.bsky.social’s guide on other actions is really useful: docs.google.com/document/d/1.... Everyone has a part they can play from where they’re at.

Energy Transfer has received requests to power 70 new data centers. Good piece by @andy-rowell.bsky.social + @ninalakhani.bsky.social on the gas pipeline companies poised to cash in on Trump's support for AI data centers. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

DOGE has now turned its sights on a small agency that provides support for community programs in every state. The National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds museums, historic sites, libraries, educators and media outlets across the country, has been told to slash staff by 70-80 percent.🧵

Folks, the *goal* is to tank the dollar. That’s a feature not a bug. Once again begging people to read through this very comprehensive guide to what we’re dealing with right now: www.vcinfodocs.com/venture-capi... (more on the dollar stuff in particular: www.vcinfodocs.com/implications...)

The logic of the new argument should be shouted from every rooftop: according to DOJ, even if you are a US citizen, after they kidnap you, you would have no recourse once they illegally hand you over to any other country in the world.

Worth sharing with alt text. Brian Eno's response to the Quaker arrests.

Also, a woman was handcuffed at a subway station in NYC (Franklin Ave) when she intervened asking why a delivery man was asked to show work permit by undercover agents. There is a video of that.

SCOOP: The Trump admin appears to be going into a visa database to quietly change students' immigration status. It's coming entirely by surprise — setting students up to be detained without warning. It's Mahmoud Khalil & Rumeysa Ozturk — on a wider scale.

“Food banks across Michigan are bracing for food shortages this year after the federal government stopped $4.3 million worth of shipments, including chicken, eggs and cheese ― even as many report that the need for food assistance is increasing.”