Past & Present No. 271 (May 2026) is now published All articles in the issue can be accessed here: academic.oup.com/past/issue/2... via our publisher @academic.oup.com Or by scrolling down the thread👇
Graham Dutfield
@grahamdutfield.bsky.social
Once a geographer, avid practitioner of slow scholarship, Leeds Uni prof, teaches law & health, biotech, food, nature. Preferred habitats: Greece, gardens, mountains, coasts, London, pubs https://grahamdutfield.substack.com/
The Fauci hearing was a disgrace. Here are some reminders of how it really went down in 2020. Never forget.
Not for the first time, US, Israel, North Korea and Russia line up on the same side on human rights
Olga Nesterova@onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 2w agoUS, alongside Argentina, Burkina Faso, North Korea, Israel, Mali, Niger, Nicaragua, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago voted AGAINST the approval of the appointment of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for a term from 12 October 2026 until 11 October 2030 See the vote and quote below ⬇️
There's all kinds of DNA on the Turin Shroud, some of it seemingly from the Middle East and India. Whether this tells us anything more about its provenance is not clear. My latest column for @chemistryworld.com www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/dna-...
DNA on the Shroud of Turin reveals plant, animal and human contaminants
Peanuts, chickens and a researcher are among those who have left their mark on the cloth
chemistryworld.com
Just across the Naver river shown here was Rosal, a Gaelic speaking community that was callously emptied of its inhabitants one sad day in 1814, with only traces remaining today. The Sutherland Clearances were cruel and must have been utterly traumatic. I took this photo on 5 July.
Rainbow over Strathmore valley, Sutherland, Far North of Scotland. Taken from halfway up Ben Hope, 8 July
www.nature.com/articles/s43...
The strategic importance of mRNA vaccine technologies in Africa for achieving public health independence - Communications Medicine
Arbuthnot et al. examine efforts to establish mRNA vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa. They conclude that although major progress has been made in building scientific, manufacturing and regulato...
nature.com
I'm old enough to remember when the entire British right had a month long meltdown about "foreign interference" when Obama said something mildly disobliging about Brexit. The Trump administration pouring millions of dollars into far right political groups in the UK? Not a peep
These years of anti-immigration hysteria we're living through right now are going to look utterly incomprehensible in the coming era of closing schools, ageing populations and massively understaffed public services
Josiah Mortimer@josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 3w agoWow. The Department for Education has just published new projections which estimate that the number of pupils in state-funded schools in England will plummet by more than 9% by 2031 amid falling birth rates And yet this issue receives probably 1,000th of the coverage the immigration debate receives
www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/sanof...
Sanofi opens new chapters in Pfizer, Moderna mRNA patent litigation sagas
As Pfizer and Moderna have tied off certain threads in their separate webs of mRNA patent litigation, Sanofi has opened a new front to challenge the companies’ blockbuster COVID-19 vaccines. < | As Pf...
fiercepharma.com
Nature’s rights draft bill receives second Lords reading A new UK bill aims to formalise nature as an entity with its own rights, and acknowledge our interdependence is vital for planetary survival By Natalie Bennett
Nature’s rights draft bill receives second Lords reading
A new UK bill aims to formalise nature as an entity with its own rights, and acknowledge our interdependence is vital for planetary survival
yorkshirebylines.co.uk
I've signed and sent a letter - from authors, broadcasters, journalists, artists, scholars and performers - to express our deep concern at @exeter.ac.uk’s troubling plans to make mass redundancies within the Humanities Dept @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social. I would love it if you read and shared widely.
And we all knew this while it was going on.
Adam Bienkov@adambienkov.bsky.social · 3w agoAlmost £10 billion of the £15 billion that Boris Johnson's Government spent on PPE during the pandemic was wasted, the Covid Inquiry has concluded. The Inquiry found money was wasted on a "vast" scale, with companies with "connections to government" given first preference for contracts
As someone who lives in London but works at a Northern university I totally share the sentiment
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 3w agoTrain I'm on is late so I'll miss my connection and meeting. Next train is cancelled. All three trains yesterday were late. It's just become impossible to go or get anywhere and it's soooo tiring.
I suppose it’s helpful to be reminded that Reform is about extreme English nationalism and perpetuating dominance of England and English interests in the UK. Nobody, including us English, should find this in any way appealing
Adam Bienkov@adambienkov.bsky.social · 3w agoReform UK plans to jail candidates for using Irish, Gaelic Or Cornish on their election leaflets. Nigel Farage’s party propose amendment to the elections Bill which would mean candidates using Irish and Scottish Gaelic would face up to six months in prison bylinetimes.com/2026/07/13/r...
‘Behind Palantir’s bombastic self-image, we found there was a much more prosaic reality: problems with software and staff resistance, but also an unrivalled level of political access.’ @petergeoghegan.bsky.social annd @lucasamin.bsky.social on Palantir’s NHS contract: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Peter Geoghegan and Lucas Amin · ‘This looks absolutely rubbish’: Palantir and the NHS
lrb.co.uk
Climate action was one of the Conservatives' only honourable records in government. They were too embarrassed to talk about it then and they shit all over it now.
James Murray@james-bg.bsky.social · 4w agoA party with a proud record of environmentalism and a once pragmatic and serious approach to climate change is enthusiastically embracing the denial of one of the most severe threats facing the UK. And to make it all even more surreal, no one seems to care.
In case of interest, a very nice summary of a lecture I gave in early June at the Korea Development Institute www.kdischool.ac.kr/gallery.es?m...
kdischool.ac.kr
In one chapter of his book entitled 'The Art of the Bribe', Nigel Farage donor and convicted fraudster George Cottrell describes how politicians can be bought www.ft.com/content/7a0f...
Exactly this. I was once so frustrated by this that I took the time to remind students that they had more access to the combined knowledge of humanity in their pocket than any other generation in history and they should USE IT to look up words, rather than retreating from the difficulty.
Satellite imagery shows the Amazon forest closing over an illegal road that nearly severed the Xingu Socioenvironmental Corridor in 2022. Following a government crackdown sparked by civil society pressure, new illegal road openings across the basin have sharply declined. Rafael Spuldar reports.
Crackdown lets rainforest reclaim illegal road in rare win for the Amazon
A vanishing road in the Xingu region exemplifies what is at stake in Brazil’s October election.
mongabay.cc
X owner Elon Musk indicates he would prioritise political violence (assassination of pro-migration politicians is the common sense meaning) over violence against "invaders" (refugees, asylum seekers, maybe ethnic minorities generally) while endorsing call for violence (killing) against both groups
It was inevitable, wasn't it🙄 Of course the Telegraph would run with something like this👇 So let's remove some of the rose-tinted spectacles and also look at some of that data comparing 1976 with modern heat waves Because the 1976 nostalgia porn is wearing a bit thin at this stage 🧵1/23
It’s wild that politicians don’t seem to grasp the degree to which universities contribute to the economy- local, regional, national. The failure to intervene is a stain on this govt - a shocking dereliction of duty to every worker, every local business, every student, every area that is suffering
Stephen Shapiro@stephenshapiro.bsky.social · last mo.UK to Universities: drop dead archive.is/PN5y7
healthpolicy-watch.news/despite-dela...
Despite Delays, Negotiations Over Critical PABS Annex To WHO Pandemic Treaty Reveal Signs Of Progress; Here’s Why - Health Policy Watch
What’s left to tackle in the PABS talks? As the clock ran out, and then was extended for another year, on negotiations over the Pandemic Agreement’s Annex on
healthpolicy-watch.news