IDF admits Tehran synagogue damaged in strike targeting Iranian commander, regrets ‘collateral damage’ * * *

Today I learned there was a synagogue in Iran. Wish I’d known about that before Israel bombed it.

www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

Screenshot of a post by Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump): “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

Threatening war crimes and mocking Islam isn't a sign of strength, it's a sign of weakness.

The PM should rule out UK forces and airfields being used for any attacks on Iranian civilian infrastructure.

What more will it take for Starmer to call off the Royal Visit Trump craves?

Letter from Lib Dem MPs to Keir Starmer today calling on him to withdraw US access to UK air bases.

Liberal Democrat MPs have written to Keir Starmer today calling on him to withdraw US access to UK air bases. Donald Trump's latest shocking threats against Iran would amount to war crimes. The UK cannot be complicit.

Keir Starmer utterly silent on the war crimes that are happening.

He'll drone on about a special relationship but nothing to say on war crimes in Iran, Lebanon, Palestine.

Trump and Netanyahu able to behave like we have law of the jungle.

Iran war: International law experts allege violations in Iran war The White House says it is making the entire region safer by eliminating short and long-term threats.

There is growing evidence of grave violations of International Law that could amount to war crimes.

Starmer must stop aiding this war mongering President.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Donald Trump post threatening Iran, saying “a whole civilisation will die tonight.”

After Trump's latest shocking threats, Keir Starmer faces a choice.

Withdraw US access now to UK air bases, or risk letting British soil be used to commit war crimes.

The Department of State tweets a video of Secretary Marco Rubio. In the video, Rubio says: "Imagine if instead of spending billions of dollars supporting terrorists or weapons, Iran had spent that money helping the people of Iran. They would have a much different country."

FactPost News tweets a video of Donald Trump speaking at a podium. In the video he says: "We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We're fighting wars. It's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these things."

hmm

The Distant Rumble Why are they here?

There's a funny noise coming over the hill.
llewellyn.substack.com/p/the-distan...

Half a million march in London for ‘biggest ever’ protest against far-right, say organisers Demonstrators carried placards with slogans such as ‘Migrants make our NHS’ and ‘No to racism, no to Trump’

Well, the Irish media are reporting it...

Half a million march in London for ‘biggest ever’ protest against far-right, say organisers

www.irishtimes.com/world/uk/202...

What is a PhD? A primer for curious students — Michael O'Neill A quick primer aimed at students who are curious about (i) what a PhD is and (ii) how someone might apply for one.

**New Blog Post** Lots of students don't know what a PhD is or how to apply for one. This is my attempt to set out the key points. Very open to edits if anyone has suggestions. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2026/3/27/what-is-a-phd-a-primer-for-curious-students

Huzzah! Tomorrow's Sewage Spill Day when the full stats are released on how much was discharged into rivers, lakes and coasts last year. To whet your appetites I’ve mapped the 2025 spills at outfalls affecting bathing waters.
Here are the top 10 worst offenders in reverse order:

Abstract submission deadline is approaching - labb-group.com/conferences/...

Abstract submission deadline: 30th March 2026
Submit your abstract for oral or poster presenter – cmt3.research.microsoft.com/SR2026

This was 10 days ago.

Israel/US bombed 17,353 houses in Iran in first 12 days.

Please do not keep pretending they are trying to help anyone.

Genocide is all they know.

Spontaneous trisulfide metathesis in polar aprotic solvents - Nature Chemistry Dynamic S–S bonds have been leveraged in a variety of applications. Now trisulfides have been found to undergo rapid and spontaneous S–S metathesis in polar aprotic solvents. A mechanistic investigati...

New paper with our mates from down under www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hegseth ignored military officials when he slashed offices that limit risk to civilians The Defense secretary’s decision to cut offices that mitigate civilian harm faces renewed attention as the Pentagon investigates a strike that killed hundreds of Iranian children.

EXCLUSIVE: Military leaders warned Hegseth not to gut the offices that limit risk to civilians. He ignored them.

The decision faces renewed attention as the Pentagon investigates a strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed hundreds of children.

"it is especially forbidden [...] to declare that no quarter will be given" --Hague Convention of 1907

I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them.

I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump.

They killed 180 children and their teachers in a double-tap strike on a school. The girls were 7 to 12 years old.

Compare and contrast the funding call in Kristy's post below with the EPSRC EDI action plan: "2.15. Ensure no short deadlines to funding opportunities. Thoughtful deadlines to enable a greater diversity of people to apply."

www.ukri.org/publications...

This is what happens when you effectively have no ethical rules at the top of government — virtually limitless opportunities for insider profiteering.

The Telegraph. How I became a Labour school-fee exile in Dubai Sick of Labour's private school tax raid, Isabel Oakeshott decided to swap the rolling hills of the Cotswolds for the desert of the UAE. Isabel Oakeshott Published 25 January 2025

I don’t want a single penny from British taxpayers to pay for wealthy tax-dodgers in Dubai to safely come home.

They thought they didn’t need us because they greedily refused to pay their fair share … let Richard Tice and Isabel Oakeshott come crawling back with their own money.

I was born in an Iranian prison. My parents were held in their jails. My uncles lie in their mass graves. Nothing you can tell me about the crimes of the Iranian regime that I haven't lived in blood and bone. That doesn't mean I want my people bombed, maimed, killed, their homes in ruins. If your vision of liberation comes only through the destruction of innocent lives, then it's not freedom you're after. Sahar Delijani, Iranian author

I am pro Iranian people. I stand with them against their own government’s repression AND against the imperial violence in the form of bombs dropped from the sky from Israel & the US who have already killed hundreds.

I support neither imperialism or dictatorship.

Sahar Delijani said it best:

People are drowning in disinformation on a social media site run by a Fellow of the @royalsociety.org

If America still had the rule of law, this would be the easiest prosecution ever, but we all know absolutely nothing will happen.

A U.S. official said American military strikes on Iran were underway.

Remember when Congress authorized the use of force against Iran?

Me neither.

Any U.S. attack on Iran would violate U.S. and international law.

Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

The European Commission have a hard rule: you retire at 65 from official functions.

That should be universal in politics and public administration. Everywhere. You can be an advisor. A part-timer. An NPC. But you cannot be the main character.

That date should increase with the retirement age.

Trump and Israel started bombing Iran while in the middle of negotiations

Trump is starving Cuba

He’s threatening to annex Canada

He removed the leader of Venezuela

He’s threatening Greenland

He’s aiding a genocide in Gaza

This is the man who took your tax dollars for his “Board of Peace”.

Edinburgh University taking strike action after plans for 1,800 job losses University of Edinburgh faces renewed UCU industrial action ballot over £140m funding cuts and up to 1,800 job losses, with union opposing…

'Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at the University of Edinburgh are to begin strike action following management's plans for £140 million in cuts and up to 1,800 job losses.' 1/2