Something deeply troubling & shocking is happening at Exeter University*, where a mass cull of staff is planned, even though it's in surplus. No good justifications given. @jamesgdyke.info provides the details: www.technosphere.earth/the-bonfire-... *Disclosure: I have a Visiting Fellowship here. +🧵

The bonfire of the humanities

150 academic posts at the University of Exeter are to be cut, most in the humanities but also in social sciences, engineering and environmental sciences

technosphere.earth

Please sign the petition - this really helps! www.change.org/p/stop-redun...

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

change.org

«The mood was described as “febrile and mutinous” but also “positive and hopeful”.» -- True that. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Fury over Exeter University plan to scrap dozens of humanities posts

Rowan Williams and Mark Kermode join campaign against proposed cuts for arts and social sciences

theguardian.com

IMPACT, baby. Exeter university staff rally to 'fight' job cuts www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Update: Impossible to work with the effing Sword of Damocles hanging over your head,

Yes, we need more “I googled it and asked ChatGPT so now I’m an expert”.

Peter Whitewood@pwhitewood.bsky.social · last mo.

This misses the point. Self-education has become more accessible in the last 20 years than at any point in history, though not through ‘amateur reading’. The problem isn’t access to information but learning how to evaluate it critically - and that brings us back to universities (and Humanities)

“Rather than demilitarizing Ukraine, Putin’s invasion has inadvertently created the heavily militarized and permanently hostile Ukraine of his worst nightmares.” www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrain...

Putin vowed to demilitarize Ukraine. Instead, he created a major military power.

When Putin launched the full-scale invasion in 2022, he identified the “demilitarization” of Ukraine as one his two primary war aims. It is now clear that he has failed in the most spectacular fashion...

atlanticcouncil.org

#StopTheCuts

Sign the petition - stop redundancies at Exeter! www.change.org/p/stop-redun...

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

change.org

Mood. youtu.be/hJVXg1AHQTY?...

American Beauty (5/10) Movie CLIP - Lester Blackmails Brad (1999) HD

YouTube video by Movieclips

youtu.be

Two days after the U.K. intercepted a Russian shadow-fleet tanker, a Russian warship fired warning shots at a British yacht in the English Channel. Moscow claims the civilian vessel ignored radio calls and flares, forcing the Admiral Grigorovich to open fire at 150 meters. meduza.io/en/news/2026...

Russian warship fires warning shots at British yacht in the English Channel — Meduza

The Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich fired a warning shot in the direction of a civilian yacht flying a British flag after it came within about 500 meters (1,640 feet) of the warship in the…

meduza.io

Robert Kuzovkov, an artist who worked under the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, had recently joined protests against the Putin regime. He had lived in Poland since 2021 after leaving Russia to avoid arrest. ft.trib.al/My1qeXx

"How to turn a turd into gold".

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If you're still trying to figure it out after a decade that might be a clue....

"Harebrained" doesn't quite captures this -- Early War Goal Was to Install Hard Line Former President as Iran’s Leader www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/u...

Early War Goal Was to Install Hard Line Former President as Iran’s Leader

nytimes.com

This book is blowing my mind right now.

Wes Streeting will be to the UK's Labour Party what Kamala Harris was to the US Democrats.

This is some Soviet-style shit.

Science Magazine@science.org · 3mo ago

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. https://scim.ag/4tsDqRr

The “Blue Labour” strategy still being promoted by some on Labour right is premised on being able to win social conservatives while holding on to social liberals. Failure state for this strategy is failing to win social cons while alienating social liberals. Here is a map of that failure state:

Farage is a project by and for a certain billionaire elite. Anyone aspiring to tackle him without clearly laying this out will be fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.

Plenty of reasons for the Putin regime to feel nervous. This is one of them. At this rate, they’ll have to bring the war (sorry, Special Military Operation) home if they want to continue.

Kevin Rothrock@kevinrothrock.me · 3mo ago

Mediazona and Meduza updated their overall estimate of the actual number of Russia’s KIAs, based on probate records, reflecting the number of male Russian citizens, 18–59, who died since the start of the full-scale invasion to the end of 2025. The number: 352,000. en.zona.media/article/2026...

After Biden and Starmer, political scientists will have to invent a new term for centrist politicians who help hard-right populists into power because they didn’t understand their time was up.

1915-2026. 🕯️

Russia's deputy foreign minister says Putin has been invited to this year's G20 summit in Miami but Vova's attendance isn't yet confirmed. "God knows what will happen before then," Pankin told reporters at the UN. Indeed. t.me/kommersant/1...

Коммерсантъ

Россия приглашена к участию в саммите G20 в США на высшем уровне, заявил замглавы МИД РФ Александр Панкин. Кто в итоге будет представлять Россию на встрече, пока неясно, отметил он. «Есть приглашение...

t.me

“Only the best people”.

Phil Brickell MP@philbrickellmp.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The Telegraph just gave a convicted criminal a two-page spread to explain why he's pumping £4 million into Reform UK. They tucked his criminal record away in the small print. So as a former financial crime specialist I’ll do their job for them👇

Funny to see many of the same people who told us at the start of this war that international law didn’t apply suddenly discover the virtues of international law through UNCLOS and the Strait of Hormuz.

All this talk about the Madman Theory at work this week is driving me… well, you know. open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...

The Beclowning of the Madman Theory

The tentative cease fire negotiated earlier this week is not --repeat, not -- an example of the Madman Theory at work.

open.substack.com

"That's OK, because the terrorists in question look like us and quack like us, wear uniforms, and spread their terror from multi-million dollar drones and fighter jets".

When writing my Masters dissertation on Iran's nuclear programme, I encountered the term 'crazy state' - applied by an Israeli scholar to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Maybe it's time for another neologism: 'psychopathic state'?

AFP News Agency@en.afp.com · 4mo ago

🇱🇧 🇮🇱 Lebanon's government said on Wednesday that Israeli strikes killed dozens and wounded hundreds across the country, with the capital Beirut hit by the most violent bombardment since the start of the war with militant group Hezbollah ➡️ u.afp.com/SbFC

Starmer and Whitehall must be delusional if they think that the US-UK relationship could, or should return to 'business as usual' after this.