There was a non-zero chance yesterday that the US president was thinking about using nuclear weapons. The most optimistic interpretation was that he was planning the catastrophic destruction of civilian infrastructure. Diplomacy seems like the sensible approach in that situation.

This is an excellent summation of what was an impossibly mad 24 hours.

The events of the last few hours, written down in one place, by the great chronicler of the US @hcrichardson.bsky.social

Well, phew.

Just read the first bit of that Anthropic blog and it seems, not ideal?

I feel like I’m a fairly seasoned (and therefore jaded) Trump watcher, including time up close in DC. But this latest post is a new level of shocking and horrifying.

Trump may not carry out the threat.

But the fact he even made such a threat means he should immediately be removed from office.

For that is the purpose of a constitution with checks and balances.

Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation. [alt text from NASA]

Top tip: setting this as your desktop wallpaper and staring at it for a while can tune out the news for at least a few mins.

This is the ultimate test for a constitutional order.

Either constitutional mechanisms are used to check and balance this, and remove him from office, or they are not.

For there can be no greater test for any constitution.

Reid Wiseman on #Artemis II: "We have Earth out window 4 and Moon out window 3... the Moon is about 3-4 times the size of the Earth and it is almost full, and the Earth is just a small crescent out there... it's magnificent... such a majestic view out here"

Mission Control: "Amaze, amaze, amaze!"

This also sums up a lot of how I’ve been feeling this weekend. It really does set an edge to the phenomenal achievements of Artemis

And @pkrugman.bsky.social saying “America as we knew it may end Tuesday” is also not ideal

This is an excellent thread from a prof who I wouldn’t say is know for hyperbole. For @profsaunders.bsky.social to say “terrified” is, well, a bit terrifying tbh

A full disc image of Earth, as seen from the Orion Crew Module. The planet is a pale blue, swirling with white clouds and glowing slightly lighter blue in place from reflected light. At lower left, a large brown landmass is Africa, with Spain and Portugal with twinkling lights where the planet curves. At top right, auroras glow in a thin green glow, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space (pic: NASA/R.Wiseman)

More context on this #Artemis II image:

* This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right

* The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon:
☀️🌍🚀🌕

This made me look and I saw the little green arrow pointing up and went oh that’s okay. And then my brain caught up and went: Oh. Oh no.

That famous Withnail and I image

“I’ve become Governor of California by mistake”

A metro station of brutal concrete blocks and jagged black obelisks.

“You finished those DC metro stations?”
“Sure thing boss, beautiful, moodily lit and oddly unsettling, just like you asked.”
“What?”

I had to go and check this was real, and…wowzers… Doing that in the 8th when you’re already winning by eight is, essentially, a war crime

Sir Martyn Poliakoff and Sir Richard Catlow at the AAAS Awards Celebration

And as a special treat - the session features Sir Richard Catlow, former Foreign Secretary of the @royalsociety.org who is the joint winner of this years @aaas.org Betty and David Hamburg Prize for Science Diplomacy along side fellow former Foreign Secretary Sir Martyn Poliakoff

Front cover of the RS-AAAS Science Diplomacy report

session details: DISCUSSION PANELS 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Discussion Panels Rethinking Science Diplomacy in a Fractured World West 102 - C (Phoenix Conventi)

Details of panelists: Panelists + A European Framework for Science Diplomacy Florent Bernard, Delegation of the European Union to the United States, Washington • West 102 - C (Phoenix Convention Center) + The Evolution of Science Diplomacy in a Fractured World Richard Catlow, The Royal Society, London, United Kingdom • West 102 - C (Phoenix Convention Center) + Science Diplomacy in an Era of Disruption Kimberly Montgomery, Center for Science Diplomacy, AAAS, Washington, DC • West 102 - C (Phoenix Convention Center)

Coming up later today at #AAASmtg - Rethinking Science Diplomacy in a Fractured World. Join me for a fantastic panel with experts from the US, EU and U.K. - West 102 C at 11:30am

“If you don’t know who the Bear Grylls is, it’s you”

I did a bit of time in our Embassy in DC and I think there’s also a good case for having the appointments roughly align to the Presidential cycles too (albeit Kim being forced out and Karen extending have made that tricker now)

I love the idea that there are currently some people who were on a short list somewhere reading this and going “wait, was *I* the Bear Grylls on this list…?”

Well this is just the update you want to see as you board a flight to the US…

Session details here:

Rethinking Science Diplomacy in a Fractured World @ 2026 Annual Meeting aaas.confex.com/aaas/2026/me...

Delighted to see our former Foreign Secretaries win this award. And if you’re at #AAASmtg this week do join our session on Science Diplomacy 11:30 AM local time on Friday!

There's a risk UK participation rates in Horizon Pillar II becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy - the more we create fresh uncertainty about future participation because of low success, the more we disrupt potential collaboration.

So maybe... let's not do that?

If “that that” is good enough for Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address then I think we can all be okay with it