A terrible day for trans people in Britain and a shameful one for the EHRC and government

Equality and Human Rights Commission@equalityhumanright.bsky.social · 14h ago

Our code of practice for services, public functions and associations comes into force today. It provides practical guidance on how the Equality Act 2010 applies to services, public functions and associations. Find out more: https://ow.ly/alIf50Zwrkx

New Yorker cartoon feels about right

Stories of patients enduring A&E waits of more than 12 hours for a hospital bed have become all too commonplace since the pandemic. In February 2026, over a third of admitted cases waited over 12 hours from arrival to admission. Follow the trend in our video 👇

Behind the bewildering transformation of British universities, are management consultants being paid millions Really proud to have this vital piece on our unis are being gutted from the inside by @jheathershaw.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale. Do read democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...

Inside Britain's university crisis

As teaching staff face job loss, their bosses have netted pay rises and bought advice from a “vampiric” management consultancy, writes Prof. John Heathershaw of the University of Exeter

democracyforsale.substack.com

I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.

This is more than the NSF social sciences division - now on the chopping block - awarded in grants last year. Think about that: a single AI company has the money to fund more social science research than the US govt.

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 6d ago

Anthropic AI research fund offers $5m - $30m for social science research on themes of AI impact on workers; transition initiatives; income support; building worker stakes; and wider evidence on public investments. Total fund of $200m available www.anthropic.com/news/economi...

I've caught wind of a genAI service called "SciFig" marketing itself to academics as a way of creating figures for assignments, dissertations, papers, etc. I urge my peers to avoid it, and for those with power to influence departmental policy to seek pathways towards banning it.

What are the conferences/meetings that plant evolutionary ecologists in the UK attend? It seems silly for us to be siloed by taxonomy, so I’m keen to explore how we can encourage greater discourse. Please RT.

Every commentator saying too many kids go to university has to tell their own kid to not do a degree

Nvidia’s stock fell due to “circular financing” concerns after reports that it may finance OpenAI’s purchase of $350B in Nvidia chips (vendor paying customer to buy its product) & may separately guarantee financing 4 the construction & lease of a new OpenAI data center that wld use Nvidia chips. 1/

Nvidia reignites "circular" AI concerns

The chip giant appears poised to tighten its ties with OpenAI.

axios.com

Earlier this year UKRI launched a funding call to invest £40M in ONE AI lab. www.ukri.org/opportunity/... For some unknown reason they decided to fund TWO AI labs at the cost of £60M. An extra £20M. Just found. That's the equivalent of 7 more years of Jodrell Bank. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-la...

UKRI launches two AI research labs to stay ahead in global race

Two new labs will back British researchers to develop next generation artificial intelligence (AI) systems, helping secure the UK’s position as a global leader.

ukri.org

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Somewhere a university academic is being told to "do more with less" by someone whose job title didn't exist two reorgs ago.

Australia is planning some of the world's toughest AI regulations • Water usage will be limited • AI data centers will be required to become net producers of energy • AI companies can't train on Australian creators' work without their permission • Proposals expected to be introduced in 2027

I think these people aren’t being honest,” says Michael Flexer, an English lecturer and co-chair of the Exeter UCU. “When we push on one justification [for the job losses], after a while, that folds, and they give us a different justification.” www.newstatesman.com/politics/edu...

How to kill a university's reputation

After Exeter’s announcement that it will cut 150 academic jobs, is there any hope for higher education?

newstatesman.com

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.

The UK govt is spending £1.2m a day (about £1.5bn total by 2028) supporting remnants of an inefficient, doomed, steel industry that employs under 40k people Meanwhile it throttles what was a vibrant, growing, internationally competitive HE sector that employs >440k Explain industrial policy to me

Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · last mo.

The Department for Education has confirmed that universities will receive £50.9 million less in teaching grants next academic year. Bridget Phillipson, the education minister has defended the reduction in light of tuition fee rises. https://ow.ly/6UWJ50ZkLlf

Academics at the University of Exeter’s Environment and Sustainability Institute have been placed under threat of redundancy, with the university proposing to scrap its geography degree course, it has been revealed ⬇️

‘Damaging cuts’: University of Exeter environmental academics face redundancy threat

Academics at the University of Exeter’s Environment and Sustainability Institute have been placed under threat of redundancy, with the university proposing to scrap its geography degree course, it has...

endsreport.com

1/🧵 With this paper finally published, I want to talk about the worst peer review experience of my career as a non-native English speaker, early-career researcher, and solo author, and why I think it matters. #AcademicSky #AcademicPublishing #EvoSky

Luís M. Silva@luismsilva.bsky.social · last mo.

1/🧵 Excited to finally share my latest paper (and my first solo paper)! 🎉 Pathogens evolve. Hosts respond. But does pathogen evolution simply change the magnitude of the host response, or does it reshape which host programmes are activated? 🤔 👇 doi.org/10.1038/s420... #Anopheles #EvoSky

Open letter in support of the Centre for Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Exeter, in which all 20 staff (including myself) have been put at risk of redundancy. Additional voices welcome, and please share widely docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Letter of Support for the Centre for Geography and Environmental Science, Cornwall.

YOU CANNOT EDIT THIS LETTER! To add your signature to this letter, please fill out the signatory form From there, names will be added manually, so you will not see your name appear here immediately....

docs.google.com

'The average graduate can expect to be around £100k better off over their lifetime for going to university – but a quarter can expect to be financially worse off.' Nothing in life's certain but, for most (and for now) anyway, it's a gamble that generally pays off financially. Other benefits too!

The average graduate can expect to be around £100k better off over their lifetime for going to university – but a quarter can expect to be financially worse off | Institute for Fiscal Studies

Six-in-ten degrees pay for themselves for the exchequer in the long run, with the government making a loss on the rest.

ifs.org.uk

An eventful week at Scientific American. Owner Springer Nature rushed to sell SciAm 3 days before the staff overwhelmingly voted to form a union, and laid off a lot of people. Including me. I got to work with amazing writers during my time, people who made me better. Thank-you list in comment below:

We are only halfway through 🤯 “The estimated climate impact from this jet over a fortnight is roughly equivalent to those from 78 people on average over a whole year.” By BBC www.bbc.com/sport/footba...

World Cup 2026: How Fifa president Gianni Infantino is jetting around

Gianni Infantino has clocked up thousands of air miles across North America so far.

bbc.com

17 academics in the ESI where I work have this week been put at risk of redundancy, along with several others from environment facing depts. I hope a solution is found so they can continue to contribute to Exeter's great track record on sustainability.

Paris, the capital of France, has recorded more days above 40°C this week than during the 147-year period spanning from 1872 to 2019. Historic is an understatement.

Please sign and share the petition below to stand with Exeter staff against these unjustified redundancies. Thank you 🙏 www.change.org/p/stop-redun...

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

change.org

When reality surpasses fiction! Top: fictional forecast for August 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014 to warn about the consequences of global warming. Bottom: Real French forecast for yesterday, June 22, 2026.

A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.

BBC article about Brian Ripley of the #RStats Core team given this week's excellent news concerning 2026 Rousseeuw Price for Statistics recognition for him and the core team. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Prof Brian Ripley on developing R to manage the world's data

Prof Brian Ripley has spent the past three decades working on a computer software that analyses data.

bbc.com